Essex Financial Services Inc. Buys 2,373 Shares of Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK)

Essex Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK) by 10.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,900 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,373 shares during the period. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Stanley Black & Decker were worth $1,999,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in Stanley Black & Decker during the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Crews Bank & Trust bought a new stake in shares of Stanley Black & Decker during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Stanley Black & Decker during the fourth quarter valued at $54,000. Waldron Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Stanley Black & Decker in the third quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Stanley Black & Decker in the third quarter worth about $72,000. 87.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on SWK. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Stanley Black & Decker from $104.00 to $102.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of Stanley Black & Decker from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Stanley Black & Decker from $100.00 to $94.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Mizuho upgraded Stanley Black & Decker from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on Stanley Black & Decker from $135.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $103.00.

Stanley Black & Decker Stock Performance

SWK stock opened at $87.34 on Wednesday. Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. has a 1-year low of $77.70 and a 1-year high of $110.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of $13.46 billion, a PE ratio of 45.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $83.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $93.53.

Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The industrial products company reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.21. Stanley Black & Decker had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 1.92%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. will post 5.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Stanley Black & Decker Profile

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc engages in the provision of power and hand tools, and related accessories, products, services and equipment for oil and gas, infrastructure applications, commercial electronic security and monitoring systems, healthcare solutions, and mechanical access solutions. It operates through the Tools and Storage segment, and Industrial segment.