StockNews.com Initiates Coverage on ITT (NYSE:ITT)

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of ITT (NYSE:ITT – Get Rating) in a research report report published on Thursday morning. The brokerage issued a strong-buy rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

ITT has been the subject of a number of other research reports. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on ITT from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, February 13th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on ITT from $94.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, February 13th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on ITT from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, January 20th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on ITT from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, February 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on ITT from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, February 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $95.30.

ITT Stock Performance

NYSE ITT opened at $79.21 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $6.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.43. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $89.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $80.79. ITT has a fifty-two week low of $63.77 and a fifty-two week high of $95.18.

ITT (NYSE:ITT – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 9th. The conglomerate reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $774.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $766.82 million. ITT had a return on equity of 17.63% and a net margin of 12.28%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.06 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that ITT will post 4.84 EPS for the current year.

ITT Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, March 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.29 per share. This is a boost from ITT’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 8th. ITT’s dividend payout ratio is 26.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Ryan F. Flynn sold 2,197 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.22, for a total transaction of $191,622.34. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 16,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,443,229.34. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ITT

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Albert D Mason Inc. increased its position in ITT by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Albert D Mason Inc. now owns 24,248 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,967,000 after buying an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Commerce Bank increased its position in ITT by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 9,766 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $792,000 after buying an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC increased its position in ITT by 32.1% during the 3rd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 515 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC increased its position in ITT by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. FORA Capital LLC now owns 5,456 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $367,000 after buying an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc increased its position in ITT by 21.3% during the 3rd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 740 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. 90.16% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ITT Company Profile

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ITT, Inc engages in the manufacture and sale of engineered components and customized technology solutions primarily for the transportation, industrial, and energy markets. It operates through the following segments: Motion Technologies, Industrial Process, Connect and Control Technologies, and Corporate and Other.