BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Rockwell Automation Inc (NYSE:ROK). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Industrials company by 1.78% to 5.87 million shares with purchase of 0.1 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 5.12% valued currently at $1.82 billion. In addition, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings by 47831.0 to 2.51 million shares. And Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC has lifted its position by 7.91% or 0.15 million shares – to 2.08 million shares.
With over 0.45 million Rockwell Automation Inc (ROK) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $304.59 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $137.2 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -10.74% and its price on 01/12/24 lost nearly -0.17%. Currently, there are 114.80M common shares owned by the public and among those 114.35M shares have been available to trade.
An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 26 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for ROK have a consensus price objective of $307.96. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $366.00 and a low of $220.00. The average price target is 1.09% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -38.45% over that period. But an upside of 16.78% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $305.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 67 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 21 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 58,428 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 46 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 56,254 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Rockwell Automation Inc are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 3.6 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $1.12 billion. The company bought an additional 4366.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.14% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 14364.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 2.77 million shares valued at over $861.49 million and representing 2.42% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund bought 2086.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 2.61 million shares at a value of $810.59 million. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.28% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Rockwell Automation Inc (NYSE: ROK) opened at $307.35, up $2.25 from a prior closing price of $305.10. However, the script later moved the day high at 307.65, down -0.17%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -0.15% and 1.52% over the past three months. ROK shares are trading -1.90% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 8.74% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $252.19 and touched a high of $348.52 over the same period. ROK has an average intraday trading volume of 882.25K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -0.39%, 7.18%, and 3.92% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Rockwell Automation Inc (NYSE: ROK) shares accounts for 83.17% of the company’s 114.80M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 38.07%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 46.30% and 1.31% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $34.90B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.42. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 25.46, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $11.97. The company has a PEG of 3.18 and a Quick Ratio of 1.04 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.94. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.42% over the week and 1.68% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Rockwell Automation Inc (ROK) will achieve an EPS of $Nokia Corporation Sponsored for the current quarter, $3.52 for the next quarter and $Stocks for Type. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $RiskOn International, Inc. while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $Rockwell Automation, Inc.. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $Roper Technologies, Inc. a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 6.03%, and 8.60% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 8.01% over the next five years, compared to 23.17% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 26 brokerage firm advisors rate Rockwell Automation Inc (ROK) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.65. Specifically, 7 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 10 of the 26 advise that investors “hold,” and 4 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the ROK, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. UBS stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on January 03, 2024, with the firm’s price target at $305-$360.
