American Century Companies Inc. Purchases 41,322 Shares of Rollins, Inc. $ROL

American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL) by 34.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 161,737 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 41,322 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Rollins were worth $9,125,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of ROL. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its stake in shares of Rollins by 196.2% during the 2nd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 3,542,898 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $199,937,000 after buying an additional 2,346,592 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its holdings in Rollins by 1,923.1% during the 2nd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,878,134 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $105,964,000 after acquiring an additional 1,785,300 shares during the period. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new stake in Rollins during the 1st quarter valued at $59,073,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Rollins during the first quarter worth $54,685,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Rollins by 3.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,736,543 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,876,815,000 after acquiring an additional 999,797 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.79% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Rollins in a research report on Friday, September 26th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. Barclays raised Rollins from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $60.00 to $72.00 in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Rollins in a report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $64.00 price objective on shares of Rollins in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Rollins from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.42.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Rollins news, insider Thomas D. Tesh sold 2,395 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.77, for a total value of $138,359.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 34,732 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,006,467.64. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 4.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Rollins Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of NYSE:ROL opened at $61.40 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.75 billion, a PE ratio of 57.38 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.77. Rollins, Inc. has a 52-week low of $45.34 and a 52-week high of $61.84. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $58.34 and a 200 day moving average of $57.37.

Rollins (NYSE:ROL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The business services provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.03. Rollins had a return on equity of 37.60% and a net margin of 14.02%.The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.29 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Rollins, Inc. will post 1.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Rollins Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.1825 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 10th. This represents a $0.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. This is a positive change from Rollins’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. Rollins’s payout ratio is 68.22%.

Rollins Profile

Rollins, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides pest and wildlife control services to residential and commercial customers in the United States and internationally. The company offers pest control services to residential properties protecting from common pests, including rodents, insects, and wildlife.