Ballentine Partners LLC Acquires 598 Shares of Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL)

Ballentine Partners LLC grew its holdings in Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL) by 8.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,729 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 598 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Rollins were worth $358,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. lifted its position in Rollins by 14.0% during the third quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 9,397,497 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $465,503,000 after purchasing an additional 1,154,722 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Rollins during the 3rd quarter valued at about $43,225,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Rollins during the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,980,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Rollins by 22.6% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,280,005 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $115,323,000 after acquiring an additional 420,399 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its stake in Rollins by 34.8% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 721,467 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $36,491,000 after acquiring an additional 186,452 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.79% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on ROL shares. Canaccord Genuity Group started coverage on shares of Rollins in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Rollins from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com lowered Rollins from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Rollins from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Rollins in a report on Monday, January 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Rollins has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.50.

Rollins Stock Performance

NYSE ROL opened at $48.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.72. Rollins, Inc. has a 1-year low of $40.41 and a 1-year high of $52.16. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.40 billion, a PE ratio of 50.33 and a beta of 0.75.

Rollins (NYSE:ROL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The business services provider reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $916.27 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $911.15 million. Rollins had a net margin of 14.18% and a return on equity of 38.67%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.28 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Rollins, Inc. will post 0.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Rollins Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.165 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. Rollins’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.75%.

Insider Activity at Rollins

In other Rollins news, major shareholder Timothy Curtis Rollins sold 14,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.88, for a total transaction of $735,730.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 124,214 shares in the company, valued at $6,195,794.32. This represents a 10.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 4.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Rollins

Rollins, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides pest and wildlife control services to residential and commercial customers in the United States and internationally. The company offers pest control services to residential properties protecting from common pests, including rodents, insects, and wildlife.