Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Acquires 280 Shares of Otis Worldwide Co. (NYSE:OTIS)

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Otis Worldwide Co. (NYSE:OTIS) by 0.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 544,655 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership’s holdings in Otis Worldwide were worth $50,440,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Otis Worldwide by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,455 shares of the company’s stock worth $320,000 after buying an additional 105 shares during the period. Montis Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Otis Worldwide by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Montis Financial LLC now owns 2,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its stake in shares of Otis Worldwide by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 6,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $643,000 after acquiring an additional 114 shares during the period. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Otis Worldwide by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock valued at $600,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its position in Otis Worldwide by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 2,867 shares of the company’s stock valued at $299,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Otis Worldwide

In related news, insider Montlivault Stephane De sold 6,660 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.30, for a total value of $701,298.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 63,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,731,934.30. This represents a 9.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Peiming Zheng sold 32,694 shares of Otis Worldwide stock in a transaction on Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.43, for a total transaction of $3,119,988.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 169 shares in the company, valued at $16,127.67. This represents a 99.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 112,281 shares of company stock valued at $10,747,553 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on OTIS shares. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Otis Worldwide from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Otis Worldwide from $91.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research lowered Otis Worldwide from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $104.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Otis Worldwide from $108.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $103.00.

Otis Worldwide Price Performance

Shares of Otis Worldwide stock opened at $102.08 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $98.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $98.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.14 and a beta of 1.05. Otis Worldwide Co. has a one year low of $90.12 and a one year high of $106.83.

Otis Worldwide (NYSE:OTIS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by ($0.02). Otis Worldwide had a negative return on equity of 31.76% and a net margin of 11.53%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Otis Worldwide Co. will post 4.04 EPS for the current year.

Otis Worldwide declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, January 16th that permits the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 5.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Otis Worldwide Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Otis Worldwide’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.42%.

Otis Worldwide Profile

Otis Worldwide Corporation engages in manufacturing, installation, and servicing of elevators and escalators in the United States, China, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, New Equipment and Service. The New Equipment segment designs, manufactures, sells, and installs a range of passenger and freight elevators, as well as escalators and moving walkways for residential and commercial buildings, and infrastructure projects.