Johnson Controls International Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:JCI)

Johnson Controls International plc (NYSE:JCI) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 19,207 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,963% compared to the typical volume of 931 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Oliver sold 110,615 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.67, for a total transaction of $8,038,392.05. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,243,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $90,383,385.17. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Johnson Controls International news, CEO George Oliver sold 110,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.67, for a total value of $8,038,392.05. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,243,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $90,383,385.17. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Nathan D. Manning sold 1,167 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.75, for a total value of $84,899.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 143,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,438,752. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 116,693 shares of company stock valued at $8,489,465 over the last three months. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Johnson Controls International

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in JCI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Johnson Controls International by 17.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,387,169 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,114,756,000 after buying an additional 10,522,009 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Johnson Controls International by 85.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 14,142,736 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,804,000 after buying an additional 6,520,580 shares during the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its stake in shares of Johnson Controls International by 686.4% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,445,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $295,487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,880,146 shares in the last quarter. Clean Energy Transition LLP acquired a new position in shares of Johnson Controls International in the 4th quarter valued at about $124,553,000. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of Johnson Controls International in the 1st quarter valued at about $120,948,000. 90.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on JCI shares. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Johnson Controls International from $72.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Johnson Controls International from $73.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Johnson Controls International from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $61.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Barclays raised their price target on Johnson Controls International from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Johnson Controls International from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Johnson Controls International currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.21.

Johnson Controls International Trading Down 0.3 %

Johnson Controls International stock opened at $76.59 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $51.16 billion, a PE ratio of 31.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $71.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $68.60. Johnson Controls International has a 52 week low of $47.90 and a 52 week high of $78.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

Johnson Controls International (NYSE:JCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.06. Johnson Controls International had a return on equity of 13.64% and a net margin of 6.02%. The firm had revenue of $7.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.03 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Johnson Controls International will post 3.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Johnson Controls International Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 25th will be paid a $0.37 dividend. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 25th. Johnson Controls International’s payout ratio is 59.92%.

About Johnson Controls International

Johnson Controls International plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in engineering, manufacturing, commissioning, and retrofitting building products and systems in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates in four segments: Building Solutions North America, Building Solutions EMEA/LA, Building Solutions Asia Pacific, and Global Products.