Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Buys 3,379 Shares of Cintas Corporation $CTAS

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 112,745 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,379 shares during the quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cintas were worth $21,204,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Prana Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Cintas in the 3rd quarter valued at $14,312,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Cintas by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 413,665 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $84,909,000 after acquiring an additional 10,249 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cintas by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,948,620 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,994,594,000 after acquiring an additional 564,487 shares in the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in shares of Cintas in the 4th quarter valued at $15,736,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Cintas by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 792,816 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $162,733,000 after acquiring an additional 126,845 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on CTAS. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Cintas in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $215.00 price target for the company. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Cintas from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $250.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Cintas from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Cintas from $222.00 to $190.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Cintas from $181.00 to $160.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cintas currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $215.17.

Cintas Stock Performance

Shares of CTAS stock opened at $176.28 on Friday. Cintas Corporation has a 12 month low of $161.16 and a 12 month high of $226.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.53 billion, a PE ratio of 49.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $173.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $184.29.

Cintas (NASDAQ:CTAS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The business services provider reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.24. The company had revenue of $2.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.82 billion. Cintas had a net margin of 17.57% and a return on equity of 41.47%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Cintas Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cintas Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Cintas’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.85%.

Insider Activity at Cintas

In other news, Director Ronald W. Tysoe sold 4,666 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.87, for a total value of $834,607.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 22,448 shares in the company, valued at $4,015,273.76. This represents a 17.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 14.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cintas Profile

Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ: CTAS) is a provider of business services and products focused on workplace appearance, safety and facility maintenance. The company is best known for its uniform rental and corporate apparel programs, which include rental, leasing and direct-purchase options, laundering and garment repair. Cintas markets its services to a wide range of end-users, including manufacturing, food service, healthcare, hospitality, retail and government customers.

Beyond uniforms, Cintas offers a suite of facility services and products designed to help organizations maintain clean, safe and compliant workplaces.