Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $957,000 in Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 11,900 shares of the aerospace company’s stock, valued at approximately $957,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of TXT. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. grew its holdings in shares of Textron by 93.7% during the third quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,474,191 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $115,193,000 after buying an additional 713,169 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank purchased a new position in shares of Textron during the third quarter valued at $50,696,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Textron by 11.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,745,108 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $448,923,000 after buying an additional 596,214 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Textron during the fourth quarter valued at $394,347,000. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA grew its holdings in shares of Textron by 9.7% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 5,394,200 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $421,503,000 after buying an additional 477,720 shares in the last quarter. 86.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on TXT. StockNews.com upgraded Textron from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Bank of America upgraded Textron from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $85.00 to $105.00 in a report on Friday, March 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Textron from $103.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Textron from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Textron from $104.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $93.63.

Textron Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TXT opened at $94.00 on Thursday. Textron Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.27 and a fifty-two week high of $97.33. The business has a 50-day moving average of $92.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $83.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.03.

Textron (NYSE:TXT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The aerospace company reported $1.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.53 by $0.07. Textron had a return on equity of 16.05% and a net margin of 6.73%. The company had revenue of $3.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.97 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.07 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Textron Inc. will post 6.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Textron Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.09%. Textron’s dividend payout ratio is currently 1.75%.

Textron Company Profile

Textron Inc operates in the aircraft, defense, industrial, and finance businesses worldwide. It operates through six segments: Textron Aviation, Bell, Textron Systems, Industrial, Textron eAviation, and Finance. The Textron Aviation segment manufactures, sells, and services business jets, turboprop and piston engine aircraft, and military trainer and defense aircraft; and offers maintenance, inspection, and repair services, as well as sells commercial parts.