Brokerages Set Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) Target Price at $291.43

Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the eight brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $284.29.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective (up from $250.00) on shares of Applied Industrial Technologies in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Applied Industrial Technologies from $325.00 to $275.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Applied Industrial Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Bank of America raised shares of Applied Industrial Technologies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $285.00 to $315.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Applied Industrial Technologies from $250.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th.

Applied Industrial Technologies Price Performance

Shares of AIT opened at $224.83 on Monday. Applied Industrial Technologies has a fifty-two week low of $177.68 and a fifty-two week high of $282.98. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $248.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $243.65. The company has a market cap of $8.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.78, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a quick ratio of 2.55, a current ratio of 3.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The industrial products company reported $2.39 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.21 by $0.18. Applied Industrial Technologies had a net margin of 8.62% and a return on equity of 22.37%. On average, research analysts forecast that Applied Industrial Technologies will post 9.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Industrial Technologies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. This is a boost from Applied Industrial Technologies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. Applied Industrial Technologies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.64%.

Institutional Trading of Applied Industrial Technologies

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Applied Industrial Technologies by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,441,051 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $321,542,000 after purchasing an additional 34,113 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Applied Industrial Technologies by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,271,356 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $304,452,000 after purchasing an additional 85,270 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Applied Industrial Technologies by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,061,231 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $254,182,000 after purchasing an additional 20,842 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Applied Industrial Technologies by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 571,275 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $136,803,000 after purchasing an additional 1,958 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Applied Industrial Technologies during the 4th quarter worth $129,690,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.52% of the company’s stock.

About Applied Industrial Technologies

Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc distributes industrial motion, power, control, and automation technology solutions in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. It operates in two segments, Service Center Based Distribution, and Engineered Solutions. The company distributes bearings, power transmission products, engineered fluid power components and systems, specialty flow control solutions, advanced automation products, industrial rubber products, linear motion components, automation solutions, tools, safety products, oilfield supplies, and other industrial and maintenance supplies; and motors, belting, drives, couplings, pumps, hydraulic and pneumatic components, filtration supplies, valves, fittings, process instrumentation, actuators, and hoses, filtration supplies, as well as other related supplies for general operational needs of customers' machinery and equipment.