Teacher Retirement System of Texas Trims Holdings in Acushnet Holdings Corp. (NYSE:GOLF)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas decreased its position in shares of Acushnet Holdings Corp. (NYSE:GOLF) by 40.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,815 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,257 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Acushnet were worth $342,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acushnet by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,013,857 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,632,000 after buying an additional 63,294 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Acushnet by 2.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 441,069 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,118,000 after acquiring an additional 10,762 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC purchased a new position in Acushnet during the third quarter valued at approximately $508,000. Atria Investments Inc raised its position in Acushnet by 35.0% during the fourth quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 31,890 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,267,000 after acquiring an additional 8,268 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in Acushnet by 361.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 48,563 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,096,000 after purchasing an additional 38,041 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 53.12% of the company’s stock.

Acushnet Stock Performance

NYSE:GOLF opened at $67.49 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $66.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $67.74. Acushnet Holdings Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $58.54 and a fifty-two week high of $76.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.04 billion, a PE ratio of 22.96 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 2.10.

Acushnet (NYSE:GOLF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.33) by $0.31. Acushnet had a net margin of 7.78% and a return on equity of 21.45%. The firm had revenue of $445.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $454.83 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Acushnet Holdings Corp. will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acushnet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $0.235 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Acushnet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%. Acushnet’s payout ratio is currently 28.23%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on GOLF shares. Compass Point raised shares of Acushnet from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $77.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acushnet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Acushnet from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $64.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price target on Acushnet from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Acushnet news, insider Steven Francis Pelisek sold 20,000 shares of Acushnet stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.86, for a total transaction of $1,417,200.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 96,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,802,985.16. The trade was a 17.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 54.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Acushnet

Acushnet Holdings Corp. designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes golf products in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, Korea, and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Titleist Golf Balls, Titleist Golf Clubs, Titleist Golf Gear, and FootJoy Golf Wear.