Cintas (NASDAQ:CTAS) Upgraded at Argus

Argus upgraded shares of Cintas (NASDAQ:CTAS) to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

CTAS has been the topic of several other research reports. Redburn Partners set a $184.00 target price on Cintas in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective on shares of Cintas in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Cintas in a research report on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Cintas from $246.00 to $230.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “sell” rating and set a $181.00 price target (up from $176.00) on shares of Cintas in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cintas has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $214.86.

Cintas Stock Performance

Shares of CTAS opened at $192.96 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $188.19 and a 200-day moving average of $199.17. The company has a market cap of $77.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 1.71. Cintas has a 1 year low of $180.39 and a 1 year high of $229.24.

Cintas (NASDAQ:CTAS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 18th. The business services provider reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.01. Cintas had a net margin of 17.58% and a return on equity of 41.07%. The firm had revenue of $2.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.09 EPS. Cintas’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Cintas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.810-4.880 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cintas will post 4.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Cintas Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 13th. Investors of record on Friday, February 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Cintas’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.48%.

Cintas announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cintas

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CTAS. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund raised its position in Cintas by 2.7% during the third quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 99,876 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $20,501,000 after buying an additional 2,628 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Cintas by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 14,472 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,225,000 after acquiring an additional 1,459 shares during the period. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC grew its stake in Cintas by 197.4% during the 3rd quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 9,344 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,858,000 after acquiring an additional 6,202 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cintas by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,384,133 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $8,554,672,000 after purchasing an additional 524,829 shares during the period. Finally, Generate Investment Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Cintas in the 3rd quarter valued at about $7,431,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.46% of the company’s stock.

About Cintas

Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ: CTAS) is a provider of business services and products focused on workplace appearance, safety and facility maintenance. The company is best known for its uniform rental and corporate apparel programs, which include rental, leasing and direct-purchase options, laundering and garment repair. Cintas markets its services to a wide range of end-users, including manufacturing, food service, healthcare, hospitality, retail and government customers.

Beyond uniforms, Cintas offers a suite of facility services and products designed to help organizations maintain clean, safe and compliant workplaces.