Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) Upgraded at Stephens

Stephens upgraded shares of Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has $350.00 target price on the industrial products company’s stock, up from their previous target price of $275.00.

ROK has been the topic of a number of other reports. HSBC upgraded shares of Rockwell Automation from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $355.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Rockwell Automation from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Rockwell Automation from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $345.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Rockwell Automation from $245.00 to $240.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on shares of Rockwell Automation in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $313.00 target price on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Rockwell Automation has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $304.16.

Rockwell Automation Stock Performance

Shares of ROK stock opened at $287.06 on Thursday. Rockwell Automation has a 52-week low of $242.81 and a 52-week high of $307.71. The stock has a market cap of $32.45 billion, a PE ratio of 34.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.36. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $287.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $274.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The industrial products company reported $2.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.40 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.06 billion. Rockwell Automation had a return on equity of 30.42% and a net margin of 11.53%. Rockwell Automation’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.64 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Rockwell Automation will post 9.37 EPS for the current year.

Rockwell Automation Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th were issued a dividend of $1.31 per share. This is a positive change from Rockwell Automation’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. This represents a $5.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. Rockwell Automation’s payout ratio is presently 63.29%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Veena M. Lakkundi sold 579 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.86, for a total value of $154,511.94. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,221,151.36. The trade was a 11.23 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Scott Genereux sold 279 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.13, for a total transaction of $82,620.27. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 2,891 shares in the company, valued at approximately $856,111.83. The trade was a 8.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,436 shares of company stock worth $10,832,549 over the last 90 days. 0.68% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Rockwell Automation

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Richardson Financial Services Inc. raised its position in Rockwell Automation by 100.0% in the 3rd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 96 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Rockwell Automation in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. West Oak Capital LLC lifted its position in Rockwell Automation by 455.6% during the fourth quarter. West Oak Capital LLC now owns 100 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Rockwell Automation in the 3rd quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in Rockwell Automation during the second quarter worth about $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.75% of the company’s stock.

Rockwell Automation Company Profile

Rockwell Automation, Inc provides industrial automation and digital transformation solutions in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company operates through three segments, Intelligent Devices, Software & Control, and Lifecycle Services. Its solutions include hardware and software products and services.