Man Group plc Raises Stock Position in Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT)

Man Group plc lifted its stake in shares of Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) by 39.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 30,768 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,654 shares during the quarter. Man Group plc’s holdings in Gartner were worth $14,906,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Gartner during the fourth quarter worth approximately $366,000. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its holdings in Gartner by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 1,137 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $551,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Gartner by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 31,626 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $15,322,000 after buying an additional 480 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its holdings in Gartner by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 3,379 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,637,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its holdings in Gartner by 8.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 166,787 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $84,520,000 after buying an additional 13,205 shares during the period. 91.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Gartner

In other Gartner news, EVP William James Wartinbee III sold 538 shares of Gartner stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $449.09, for a total value of $241,610.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 7,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,577,001.85. The trade was a 6.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Eileen Serra sold 1,200 shares of Gartner stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $489.77, for a total transaction of $587,724.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $796,855.79. The trade was a 42.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 6,001 shares of company stock worth $2,736,801 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Gartner Trading Up 0.3%

NYSE IT opened at $447.88 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $34.41 billion, a PE ratio of 27.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day moving average of $420.79 and a 200 day moving average of $479.72. Gartner, Inc. has a 1 year low of $366.05 and a 1 year high of $584.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06.

Gartner (NYSE:IT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The information technology services provider reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.72 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. Gartner had a net margin of 20.00% and a return on equity of 116.56%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.93 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Gartner, Inc. will post 12.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on IT shares. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Gartner from $605.00 to $557.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Gartner from $401.00 to $400.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Gartner from $622.00 to $535.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Gartner from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Gartner from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Gartner has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $518.67.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc operates as a research and advisory company in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Research, Conferences, and Consulting. The Research segment delivers its research primarily through a subscription service that include on-demand access to published research content, data and benchmarks, and direct access to a network of research experts.