Allison Transmission (NYSE:ALSN) Price Target Lowered to $94.00 at Morgan Stanley

Allison Transmission (NYSE:ALSN) had its price objective trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $112.00 to $94.00 in a report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the auto parts company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on ALSN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Allison Transmission from $110.00 to $98.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Allison Transmission from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Allison Transmission from $123.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup cut their price objective on Allison Transmission from $108.00 to $95.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Raymond James reduced their target price on Allison Transmission from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.88.

Allison Transmission Stock Down 1.3 %

ALSN stock opened at $87.90 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.04, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $96.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $106.03. Allison Transmission has a 52 week low of $71.49 and a 52 week high of $122.53. The company has a market cap of $7.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.58 and a beta of 0.95.

Allison Transmission (NYSE:ALSN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The auto parts company reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.11. Allison Transmission had a return on equity of 47.95% and a net margin of 22.67%. On average, research analysts expect that Allison Transmission will post 9.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Allison Transmission declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, February 20th that allows the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the auto parts company to purchase up to 57.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Allison Transmission Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a boost from Allison Transmission’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.23%. Allison Transmission’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Allison Transmission news, VP Ryan A. Milburn sold 4,546 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.20, for a total transaction of $437,325.20. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 14,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,360,075.60. This trade represents a 24.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP John Coll sold 1,788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.33, for a total transaction of $170,450.04. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,466,938.04. This represents a 10.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Allison Transmission

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Allison Transmission by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,993,015 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $1,404,025,000 after purchasing an additional 247,318 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Allison Transmission by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,652,996 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $286,683,000 after buying an additional 76,840 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its stake in Allison Transmission by 301.1% during the fourth quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 2,378,731 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $257,046,000 after buying an additional 1,785,687 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in shares of Allison Transmission by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,061,351 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $114,690,000 after acquiring an additional 69,008 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Allison Transmission in the 4th quarter valued at $108,916,000. 96.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Allison Transmission

Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and medium- and heavy-tactical U.S. defense vehicles, and electrified propulsion systems worldwide. It provides commercial-duty on-highway, off-highway and defense fully automatic transmissions, and electric hybrid and fully electric systems.