Morgan Stanley Cuts Gartner (NYSE:IT) Price Target to $555.00

Gartner (NYSE:IT) had its price objective decreased by Morgan Stanley from $564.00 to $555.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on IT. Barclays raised shares of Gartner from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $525.00 to $600.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Gartner from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Gartner from $565.00 to $590.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Gartner from $529.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Gartner from $470.00 to $460.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $550.75.

Gartner Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE IT opened at $516.34 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $39.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $507.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $498.39. Gartner has a one year low of $411.15 and a one year high of $559.00.

Gartner (NYSE:IT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The information technology services provider reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. Gartner had a net margin of 17.33% and a return on equity of 118.27%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.56 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Gartner will post 11.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Gartner news, Director James C. Smith sold 2,450 shares of Gartner stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $554.68, for a total transaction of $1,358,966.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 529,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $293,893,869.92. The trade was a 0.46 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP William James Wartinbee III sold 189 shares of Gartner stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $523.54, for a total transaction of $98,949.06. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 7,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,827,600.94. This trade represents a 2.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 35,583 shares of company stock worth $19,241,974 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gartner

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Gartner by 208.4% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 272,267 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $131,905,000 after buying an additional 183,974 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Gartner during the third quarter worth $70,955,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Gartner by 5.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,001,142 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,014,099,000 after buying an additional 103,814 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in shares of Gartner during the third quarter worth $36,789,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Gartner by 7.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,036,530 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $525,272,000 after buying an additional 70,236 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.51% of the company’s stock.

Gartner Company Profile

Gartner, Inc operates as a research and advisory company in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Research, Conferences, and Consulting. The Research segment delivers its research primarily through a subscription service that include on-demand access to published research content, data and benchmarks, and direct access to a network of research experts.