Valmark Advisers Inc. Cuts Position in Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR)

Valmark Advisers Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,819 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 294 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Emerson Electric were worth $858,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. boosted its holdings in shares of Emerson Electric by 255.5% in the third quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 2,803,881 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $270,771,000 after acquiring an additional 2,015,232 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Emerson Electric by 26.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,447,248 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $723,873,000 after acquiring an additional 1,558,903 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in shares of Emerson Electric by 211.7% in the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 2,003,099 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $193,439,000 after acquiring an additional 1,360,477 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Emerson Electric by 16.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,199,836 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $791,858,000 after acquiring an additional 1,184,202 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Emerson Electric by 7.9% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,750,393 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,327,876,000 after purchasing an additional 1,008,294 shares during the period. 74.30% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Mark A. Blinn sold 2,413 shares of Emerson Electric stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.18, for a total value of $248,973.34. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,599.38. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on EMR. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Emerson Electric from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Emerson Electric from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Berenberg Bank lifted their price objective on shares of Emerson Electric from $100.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Emerson Electric from $95.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Emerson Electric from $106.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $116.25.

Emerson Electric Price Performance

Shares of NYSE EMR traded up $0.29 on Friday, hitting $109.89. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,364,495 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,854,608. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $110.38 and a 200-day moving average of $99.30. Emerson Electric Co. has a 12-month low of $76.94 and a 12-month high of $115.26. The company has a market capitalization of $62.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.37.

Emerson Electric (NYSE:EMR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The industrial products company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $4.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.91 billion. Emerson Electric had a net margin of 69.33% and a return on equity of 11.59%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Emerson Electric Co. will post 5.4 EPS for the current year.

Emerson Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 16th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. Emerson Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.94%.

Emerson Electric Company Profile

Emerson Electric Co, a technology and software company, provides various solutions for customers in industrial, commercial, and consumer markets in the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. It operates in six segments: Final Control, Control Systems & Software, Measurement & Analytical, AspenTech, Discrete Automation, and Safety & Productivity.