Donaldson (NYSE:DCI) Rating Increased to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Donaldson (NYSE:DCI) from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note released on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $84.00 target price on the industrial products company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $72.00.

DCI has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Donaldson from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Donaldson from $69.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Donaldson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Donaldson in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $86.33.

Donaldson Trading Up 1.2%

Donaldson stock opened at $88.73 on Monday. Donaldson has a 52 week low of $57.45 and a 52 week high of $89.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.93. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $83.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.26.

Donaldson (NYSE:DCI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 28th. The industrial products company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter. Donaldson had a return on equity of 29.50% and a net margin of 9.94%.The company had revenue of $802.50 million for the quarter. Research analysts forecast that Donaldson will post 3.64 EPS for the current year.

Donaldson Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. Donaldson’s dividend payout ratio is presently 39.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Donaldson

In other news, Director Trudy A. Rautio sold 31,900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.96, for a total value of $2,550,724.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 29,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,345,226.80. This represents a 52.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, President Guillermo Briseno sold 13,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.03, for a total transaction of $1,066,905.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president owned 25,309 shares in the company, valued at $2,000,170.27. This trade represents a 34.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 63,900 shares of company stock worth $5,129,264 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Donaldson

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in Donaldson in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $679,475,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its position in Donaldson by 75.3% in the 1st quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 3,330,602 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $223,350,000 after acquiring an additional 1,430,120 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Donaldson by 6,069.9% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,178,884 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $96,492,000 after acquiring an additional 1,159,777 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Donaldson during the second quarter worth $68,759,000. Finally, Fiduciary Management Inc. WI grew its stake in shares of Donaldson by 13.1% in the first quarter. Fiduciary Management Inc. WI now owns 2,499,756 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $167,634,000 after purchasing an additional 290,477 shares during the last quarter. 82.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.