Rhumbline Advisers Has $15.62 Million Stock Position in MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE:MSA)

Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE:MSA) by 0.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 117,032 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 383 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers owned 0.30% of MSA Safety worth $15,624,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in MSA Safety by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,701,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $404,490,000 after acquiring an additional 44,572 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in MSA Safety by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,085,328 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $227,885,000 after acquiring an additional 19,043 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its position in MSA Safety by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 708,463 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $102,153,000 after acquiring an additional 9,674 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in MSA Safety by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 705,601 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $101,741,000 after acquiring an additional 11,381 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in MSA Safety by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 498,179 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $71,832,000 after acquiring an additional 25,797 shares during the period. 80.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MSA Safety news, CEO Nishan J. Vartanian sold 2,500 shares of MSA Safety stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.00, for a total value of $372,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 37,047 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,520,003. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, VP Bob Willem Leenen sold 565 shares of MSA Safety stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $84,750.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 9,417 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,412,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Nishan J. Vartanian sold 2,500 shares of MSA Safety stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.00, for a total value of $372,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 37,047 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,520,003. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,120 shares of company stock valued at $823,526 in the last three months. Company insiders own 6.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MSA. William Blair raised MSA Safety from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 12th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on MSA Safety from $168.00 to $196.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. StockNews.com began coverage on MSA Safety in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on MSA Safety from $159.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. Finally, TheStreet raised MSA Safety from a “c” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Monday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $183.00.

MSA Safety Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of MSA stock opened at $182.68 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $172.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $150.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 1.71 and a current ratio of 2.84. MSA Safety Incorporated has a twelve month low of $108.75 and a twelve month high of $185.56. The company has a market capitalization of $7.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 570.88 and a beta of 0.98.

MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.37. MSA Safety had a return on equity of 30.28% and a net margin of 0.80%. The business had revenue of $447.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $421.14 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.29 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that MSA Safety Incorporated will post 6.53 EPS for the current year.

MSA Safety Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 16th will be given a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 15th. MSA Safety’s dividend payout ratio is currently 587.50%.

MSA Safety Profile

MSA Safety Incorporated develops, manufactures, and supplies safety products and software that protect people and facility infrastructures in the oil, gas, petrochemical, fire service, construction, industrial manufacturing applications, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration, utilities, military, and mining industries in North America, Latin America, and internationally.