LPL Financial LLC Acquires 15,756 Shares of Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Co. (NYSE:BAH)

LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Co. (NYSE:BAH) by 17.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 107,690 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,756 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Booz Allen Hamilton worth $13,860,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,313 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,028,000 after acquiring an additional 179 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Booz Allen Hamilton by 111.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 356,828 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $58,077,000 after purchasing an additional 188,185 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Booz Allen Hamilton by 93.8% in the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 15,249 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,482,000 after purchasing an additional 7,382 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its stake in shares of Booz Allen Hamilton by 590.0% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 21,762 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,543,000 after buying an additional 18,608 shares during the period. Finally, Ascent Group LLC raised its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 4,686 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $763,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. 91.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BAH. William Blair lowered shares of Booz Allen Hamilton from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Booz Allen Hamilton to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. StockNews.com cut Booz Allen Hamilton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Booz Allen Hamilton from $180.00 to $164.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays raised Booz Allen Hamilton from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Booz Allen Hamilton has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $158.27.

Booz Allen Hamilton Trading Up 4.9 %

NYSE:BAH opened at $112.63 on Thursday. Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Co. has a one year low of $101.05 and a one year high of $190.59. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $116.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.79, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 1.57.

Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE:BAH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The business services provider reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.07. Booz Allen Hamilton had a return on equity of 68.97% and a net margin of 7.39%. As a group, analysts forecast that Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Co. will post 6.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booz Allen Hamilton Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is a positive change from Booz Allen Hamilton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. Booz Allen Hamilton’s payout ratio is currently 32.79%.

Booz Allen Hamilton Company Profile

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation provides management and technology consulting, analytics, engineering, digital solutions, mission operations, and cyber services to governments, corporations, and not-for-profit organizations in the United States and internationally. It focuses on artificial intelligence services comprising of machine learning, predictive modeling, automation and decision analytics, and quantum computing.