Essentra (LON:ESNT) Stock Passes Below 200-Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Essentra plc (LON:ESNT) shares crossed below its two hundred day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of GBX 94.81 and traded as low as GBX 86.20. Essentra shares last traded at GBX 88.60, with a volume of 317,287 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ESNT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Berenberg Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a GBX 160 price objective on shares of Essentra in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a GBX 100 price objective on shares of Essentra in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a GBX 130 price objective on shares of Essentra in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Essentra to GBX 130 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Essentra presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of GBX 150.

Essentra Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of £252.40 million, a P/E ratio of 127.00, a PEG ratio of 3.84 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 47.67, a current ratio of 2.20 and a quick ratio of 0.50. The business’s fifty day moving average price is GBX 86.59 and its 200 day moving average price is GBX 94.77.

Essentra (LON:ESNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 17th. The company reported GBX 6.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Essentra had a return on equity of 0.79% and a net margin of 0.70%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Essentra plc will post 524.137931 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Kath Durrant bought 10,894 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was acquired at an average price of GBX 91 per share, with a total value of £9,913.54. Also, insider Steve Good acquired 40,000 shares of Essentra stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were bought at an average cost of GBX 93 per share, with a total value of £37,200. Over the last quarter, insiders acquired 91,194 shares of company stock worth $8,208,359. 0.48% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Essentra

Essentra plc is a leading global provider of essential components and solutions, focusing on the manufacture and distribution of plastic injection moulded, vinyl dip moulded and metal items.

Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Essentra’s global network extends to 28 countries worldwide and includes c.3,000 employees, 14 manufacturing facilities, 26 distribution centres and 37 sales & service centres serving c.64,000 customers with a rapid supply of low cost but essential products for a variety of applications in industries such as equipment manufacturing, automotive, fabrication, electronics, medical and renewable energy.