Merit Financial Group LLC Grows Position in BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE:BWA)

Merit Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE:BWA) by 33.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 18,198 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,537 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in BorgWarner were worth $579,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BWA. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in BorgWarner by 3.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,384,366 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $231,376,000 after buying an additional 217,050 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in BorgWarner by 21,752.6% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,646,950 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $168,638,000 after purchasing an additional 4,625,685 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC increased its holdings in BorgWarner by 20.2% in the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,979,776 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $128,308,000 after purchasing an additional 669,137 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in BorgWarner by 19.2% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 2,764,103 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $100,309,000 after purchasing an additional 445,540 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of BorgWarner by 361.1% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,450,696 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $79,010,000 after purchasing an additional 1,919,219 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.67% of the company’s stock.

BorgWarner Trading Down 2.8 %

BorgWarner stock opened at $31.81 on Thursday. BorgWarner Inc. has a 1 year low of $29.51 and a 1 year high of $38.22. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $32.99 and its 200-day moving average is $33.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company has a market cap of $6.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.07, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.20.

BorgWarner (NYSE:BWA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The auto parts company reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $3.45 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.50 billion. BorgWarner had a return on equity of 15.51% and a net margin of 6.33%. BorgWarner’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that BorgWarner Inc. will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current year.

BorgWarner Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.38%. BorgWarner’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.17%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BWA shares. Evercore ISI upgraded BorgWarner from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $39.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Monday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of BorgWarner from $35.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of BorgWarner from $47.00 to $43.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of BorgWarner from $51.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $41.00 price objective on shares of BorgWarner in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BorgWarner currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.47.

Insider Activity at BorgWarner

In other BorgWarner news, CEO Frederic Lissalde sold 154,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.61, for a total transaction of $5,329,940.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 259,957 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,997,111.77. This trade represents a 37.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Isabelle Mckenzie sold 5,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.62, for a total transaction of $197,334.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 37,640 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,303,096.80. This represents a 13.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 222,010 shares of company stock worth $7,678,076 in the last ninety days. 0.63% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About BorgWarner

BorgWarner Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides solutions for combustion, hybrid, and electric vehicles worldwide. It offers turbochargers, eBoosters, eTurbos, timing systems, emissions systems, thermal systems, gasoline ignition technology, smart remote actuators, powertrain sensors, cabin heaters, battery modules and systems, battery heaters, and battery charging.