Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK) in a report published on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $103.00 target price on the industrial products company’s stock.

SWK has been the topic of several other research reports. Mizuho raised Stanley Black & Decker from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Stanley Black & Decker from $107.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Stanley Black & Decker from $121.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup reduced their target price on Stanley Black & Decker from $135.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Stanley Black & Decker from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Stanley Black & Decker presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $103.00.

Stanley Black & Decker Stock Up 1.3 %

NYSE:SWK opened at $88.21 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.24. Stanley Black & Decker has a twelve month low of $77.70 and a twelve month high of $110.88. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $84.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $92.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The industrial products company reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.21. Stanley Black & Decker had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 1.92%. Equities research analysts expect that Stanley Black & Decker will post 5.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Stanley Black & Decker Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be paid a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.72%. Stanley Black & Decker’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 169.07%.

Institutional Trading of Stanley Black & Decker

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Stanley Black & Decker by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,186,011 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,540,445,000 after purchasing an additional 495,103 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Stanley Black & Decker by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 18,413,913 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,478,454,000 after purchasing an additional 246,800 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Stanley Black & Decker by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,062,992 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $998,107,000 after purchasing an additional 549,531 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Stanley Black & Decker by 126.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,485,421 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $440,424,000 after acquiring an additional 3,063,114 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Stanley Black & Decker by 22.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,139,196 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $332,336,000 after acquiring an additional 763,219 shares in the last quarter. 87.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Stanley Black & Decker

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc engages in the provision of power and hand tools, and related accessories, products, services and equipment for oil and gas, infrastructure applications, commercial electronic security and monitoring systems, healthcare solutions, and mechanical access solutions. It operates through the Tools and Storage segment, and Industrial segment.