Man Group plc Trims Stock Holdings in Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT)

Man Group plc lowered its position in Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) by 75.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 204,802 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after selling 635,387 shares during the quarter. Man Group plc owned approximately 0.11% of Textron worth $15,665,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Textron by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,733,335 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $591,523,000 after buying an additional 1,167,105 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in Textron by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 7,483,692 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $572,465,000 after buying an additional 333,127 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Textron by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,595,861 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $350,619,000 after purchasing an additional 164,964 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of Textron by 19.4% in the fourth quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 1,859,703 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $142,249,000 after purchasing an additional 302,712 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Textron by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,803,778 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $137,971,000 after purchasing an additional 155,384 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.03% of the company’s stock.

Textron Stock Up 0.9%

Textron stock opened at $76.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.20. Textron Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $57.70 and a fifty-two week high of $94.57. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $69.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $75.61.

Textron (NYSE:TXT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The aerospace company reported $1.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.26 billion. Textron had a return on equity of 14.92% and a net margin of 6.01%. Textron’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.20 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Textron Inc. will post 6.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Textron Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Textron’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 1.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Textron

In other news, VP Mark S. Bamford sold 5,451 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.68, for a total value of $396,178.68. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 18,223 shares in the company, valued at $1,324,447.64. This represents a 23.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on TXT shares. UBS Group boosted their target price on Textron from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Textron from $82.00 to $71.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. TD Cowen raised Textron to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Textron from $100.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Bank of America lowered Textron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $110.00 to $85.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.70.

About Textron

Textron Inc operates in the aircraft, defense, industrial, and finance businesses worldwide. It operates through six segments: Textron Aviation, Bell, Textron Systems, Industrial, Textron eAviation, and Finance. The Textron Aviation segment manufactures, sells, and services business jets, turboprop and piston engine aircraft, and military trainer and defense aircraft; and offers maintenance, inspection, and repair services, as well as sells commercial parts.