Donaldson (NYSE:DCI) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Donaldson (NYSE:DCI) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning.

DCI has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Donaldson from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Donaldson from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $74.00.

Donaldson Price Performance

Shares of DCI stock opened at $69.33 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $72.16. The company has a market cap of $8.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Donaldson has a twelve month low of $66.01 and a twelve month high of $78.95.

Donaldson (NYSE:DCI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, December 3rd. The industrial products company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $900.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $888.88 million. Donaldson had a net margin of 11.56% and a return on equity of 29.07%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.75 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Donaldson will post 3.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Donaldson Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 13th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 13th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. Donaldson’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.40%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Trudy A. Rautio sold 14,000 shares of Donaldson stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.60, for a total transaction of $946,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 26,420 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,785,992. The trade was a 34.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Donaldson

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Donaldson by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,717,289 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $856,509,000 after buying an additional 33,139 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Donaldson by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,994,275 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $269,014,000 after acquiring an additional 231,424 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Donaldson by 2.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,981,739 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $220,380,000 after acquiring an additional 73,234 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Donaldson by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,520,586 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $169,804,000 after acquiring an additional 71,707 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fiduciary Management Inc. WI increased its position in Donaldson by 19.9% during the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Management Inc. WI now owns 2,209,279 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $148,795,000 after purchasing an additional 367,383 shares during the period. 82.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Donaldson Company Profile

Donaldson Company, Inc manufactures and sells filtration systems and replacement parts worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Mobile Solutions, Industrial Solutions, and Life Sciences. Its Mobile Solutions segment provides replacement filters for air and liquid filtration applications, such as air filtration systems; liquid filtration systems for fuel, lube, and hydraulic applications; exhaust and emissions systems and sensors; indicators; and monitoring systems.