General Partner Inc. Purchases New Position in Eaton Co. plc (NYSE:ETN)

General Partner Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Eaton Co. plc (NYSE:ETN) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 264 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $83,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its position in Eaton by 10.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 31,733 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $6,768,000 after purchasing an additional 2,985 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Eaton during the 3rd quarter valued at $14,376,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Eaton by 12.6% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 813,433 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $173,489,000 after acquiring an additional 91,264 shares during the period. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors grew its position in shares of Eaton by 14.2% during the 3rd quarter. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors now owns 1,476 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $315,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the period. Finally, Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Eaton by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 26,438 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,639,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.97% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Eaton news, insider Peter Denk sold 2,416 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.84, for a total value of $801,725.44. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,086 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,687,738.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research restated an “underperform” rating and set a $312.00 target price on shares of Eaton in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Argus boosted their price target on shares of Eaton from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Eaton from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Eaton from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $286.00 to $371.00 in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Eaton from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $250.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Eaton presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.27.

Eaton Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE:ETN traded up $1.41 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $326.74. 493,761 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,009,397. The stock has a market capitalization of $130.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.42, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.04. Eaton Co. plc has a 52 week low of $189.26 and a 52 week high of $345.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $323.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $287.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Eaton (NYSE:ETN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The industrial products company reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.28 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $5.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.91 billion. Eaton had a net margin of 14.38% and a return on equity of 20.69%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.88 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Eaton Co. plc will post 10.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Eaton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 6th were paid a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.15%. Eaton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.39%.

Eaton Profile

Eaton Corporation plc operates as a power management company worldwide. The company's Electrical Americas and Electrical Global segment provides electrical components, industrial components, power distribution and assemblies, residential products, single and three phase power quality and connectivity products, wiring devices, circuit protection products, utility power distribution products, power reliability equipment, and services, as well as hazardous duty electrical equipment, emergency lighting, fire detection, explosion-proof instrumentation, and structural support systems.