Graham Capital Management L.P. Takes $4.16 Million Position in Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT)

Graham Capital Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 8,590 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,162,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of IT. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Gartner by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,268,639 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,490,378,000 after acquiring an additional 100,917 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Gartner by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,822,122 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,367,233,000 after purchasing an additional 223,087 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Gartner by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,063,577 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $998,400,000 after purchasing an additional 45,219 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Gartner by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,012,799 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $975,141,000 after purchasing an additional 11,657 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Gartner by 12.7% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,662,005 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $805,192,000 after buying an additional 187,854 shares in the last quarter. 91.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Gartner news, EVP Robin B. Kranich sold 739 shares of Gartner stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $436.50, for a total value of $322,573.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,464 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,932,536. The trade was a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP John J. Rinello sold 90 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $530.51, for a total transaction of $47,745.90. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 3,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,728,932.09. This trade represents a 2.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,138 shares of company stock valued at $1,005,606. Insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

IT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Gartner from $401.00 to $400.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Gartner from $605.00 to $557.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays cut their price target on Gartner from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Gartner from $564.00 to $555.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Gartner from $622.00 to $535.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $518.67.

Gartner Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:IT opened at $432.12 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $33.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $423.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $482.39. Gartner, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $366.05 and a fifty-two week high of $584.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

Gartner (NYSE:IT) last announced its quarterly 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. Gartner had a return on equity of 116.56% and a net margin of 20.00%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.93 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Gartner, Inc. will post 12.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.