Brady (NYSE:BRC) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Brady Co. (NYSE:BRC) gapped down before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $74.21, but opened at $70.65. Brady shares last traded at $69.85, with a volume of 71,289 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com cut Brady from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th.

Brady Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 2.27 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $74.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.97. The company has a market cap of $3.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.23, a P/E/G ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 0.76.

Brady (NYSE:BRC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, September 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.08. Brady had a return on equity of 19.84% and a net margin of 14.70%. The firm had revenue of $343.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $351.74 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.04 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Brady Co. will post 4.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brady Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This is an increase from Brady’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.37%. Brady’s payout ratio is presently 23.59%.

Insider Activity

In other Brady news, CEO Russell Shaller sold 12,547 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.08, for a total transaction of $916,934.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 102,905 shares in the company, valued at $7,520,297.40. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Thomas F. Debruine sold 2,851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.77, for a total value of $216,020.27. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 9,727 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $737,014.79. This trade represents a 22.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 45,262 shares of company stock valued at $3,371,231. 15.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BRC. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Brady during the first quarter worth $313,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its holdings in Brady by 225.8% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 20,012 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,186,000 after acquiring an additional 13,869 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Brady by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,307,191 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $314,610,000 after acquiring an additional 32,437 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its position in Brady by 31.7% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 18,075 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,072,000 after acquiring an additional 4,347 shares during the period. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Brady during the first quarter valued at $438,000. Institutional investors own 76.28% of the company’s stock.

Brady Company Profile

Brady Corporation manufactures and supplies identification solutions (IDS) and workplace safety (WPS) products to identify and protect premises, products, and people in the United States and internationally. The company offers materials, printing systems, RFID, and bar code scanners for product identification, brand protection labeling, work in process labeling, finished product identification, and industrial track and trace applications; safety signs, floor-marking tapes, pipe markers, labeling systems, spill control products, lockout/tagout device, and software and services for safety compliance auditing, procedure writing, and training; and hand-held printers, wire markers, sleeves, and tags for wire identification.