Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.46

Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.46 per share by the industrial products company on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This is a boost from Applied Industrial Technologies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37.

Applied Industrial Technologies has increased its dividend by an average of 3.9% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 16 consecutive years. Applied Industrial Technologies has a dividend payout ratio of 17.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Applied Industrial Technologies to earn $10.76 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 17.1%.

Applied Industrial Technologies Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE AIT opened at $262.44 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.76, a quick ratio of 2.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.07 billion, a PE ratio of 26.59, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.08. Applied Industrial Technologies has a twelve month low of $177.68 and a twelve month high of $282.98. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $255.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $236.28.

Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The industrial products company reported $2.39 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.21 by $0.18. Applied Industrial Technologies had a return on equity of 22.37% and a net margin of 8.62%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Applied Industrial Technologies will post 9.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Industrial Technologies

In other Applied Industrial Technologies news, VP Warren E. Hoffner III sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.64, for a total value of $1,126,560.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 55,709 shares in the company, valued at $15,689,882.76. This represents a 6.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Mary Dean Hall sold 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.08, for a total transaction of $605,176.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,462 shares in the company, valued at approximately $952,326.96. The trade was a 38.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.67% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AIT. Loop Capital upped their target price on shares of Applied Industrial Technologies from $230.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Bank of America raised Applied Industrial Technologies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $285.00 to $315.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. StockNews.com lowered Applied Industrial Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. KeyCorp upped their price target on Applied Industrial Technologies from $275.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $265.00 price target (up previously from $250.00) on shares of Applied Industrial Technologies in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Applied Industrial Technologies presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $291.43.

About Applied Industrial Technologies

Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc distributes industrial motion, power, control, and automation technology solutions in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. It operates in two segments, Service Center Based Distribution, and Engineered Solutions. The company distributes bearings, power transmission products, engineered fluid power components and systems, specialty flow control solutions, advanced automation products, industrial rubber products, linear motion components, automation solutions, tools, safety products, oilfield supplies, and other industrial and maintenance supplies; and motors, belting, drives, couplings, pumps, hydraulic and pneumatic components, filtration supplies, valves, fittings, process instrumentation, actuators, and hoses, filtration supplies, as well as other related supplies for general operational needs of customers' machinery and equipment.