ITT Inc. (NYSE:ITT) Short Interest Down 10.5% in August

ITT Inc. (NYSE:ITT) saw a large decline in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 572,300 shares, a decline of 10.5% from the August 15th total of 639,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 366,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.6 days. Approximately 0.7% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ITT

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings in ITT by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,535 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $541,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in ITT in the 4th quarter worth approximately $102,709,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new stake in ITT in the 4th quarter worth approximately $274,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S purchased a new stake in ITT in the 4th quarter worth approximately $78,000. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in ITT by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,013 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $717,000 after acquiring an additional 611 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.59% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of ITT from $150.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of ITT from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of ITT from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $151.00.

ITT Stock Performance

ITT traded down $0.45 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $138.69. 324,676 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 379,970. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.41 billion, a PE ratio of 27.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40. The company’s 50-day moving average is $135.40 and its 200 day moving average is $132.43. ITT has a 52 week low of $91.94 and a 52 week high of $149.65.

ITT (NYSE:ITT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The conglomerate reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.03. ITT had a net margin of 12.47% and a return on equity of 18.30%. The firm had revenue of $905.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $916.38 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.33 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that ITT will post 5.84 EPS for the current year.

ITT Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.319 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. ITT’s payout ratio is currently 24.90%.

About ITT

ITT Inc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells engineered critical components and customized technology solutions for the transportation, industrial, and energy markets in the United States and internationally. The Motion Technologies segment manufactures brake pads, shims, shock absorbers, and energy absorption components; and sealing technologies primarily for the transportation industry, including passenger cars, trucks, light- and heavy-duty commercial and military vehicles, buses, and trains.