Brokerages Set Nordson Co. (NASDAQ:NDSN) PT at $255.25

Shares of Nordson Co. (NASDAQ:NDSN) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $256.20.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Baird R W lowered Nordson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $237.00 price target (down previously from $294.00) on shares of Nordson in a research report on Friday, December 13th. BNP Paribas lowered Nordson from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $219.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, February 24th. DA Davidson cut their target price on Nordson from $295.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded Nordson from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $260.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Stephen Lovass sold 1,299 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.79, for a total transaction of $268,620.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 7,347 shares in the company, valued at $1,519,286.13. This trade represents a 15.02 % 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. 0.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nordson

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Nordson by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,226,757 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,302,887,000 after acquiring an additional 93,146 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Nordson by 7.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,638,375 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $692,916,000 after acquiring an additional 177,282 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Nordson by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,561,866 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $326,803,000 after acquiring an additional 47,052 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Nordson by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,455,956 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $303,918,000 after acquiring an additional 12,590 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Nordson by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 860,430 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $180,036,000 after acquiring an additional 24,030 shares during the last quarter. 72.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Nordson Price Performance

Shares of NDSN opened at $210.44 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. Nordson has a 1 year low of $196.83 and a 1 year high of $279.38. The stock has a market cap of $11.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $213.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $237.61.

Nordson (NASDAQ:NDSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.06 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.08 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $615.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $639.40 million. Nordson had a return on equity of 19.28% and a net margin of 16.93%. On average, equities analysts predict that Nordson will post 10.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Nordson Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.48%. Nordson’s dividend payout ratio is currently 39.69%.

About Nordson

Nordson Corporation engineers, manufactures, and markets products and systems to dispense, apply, and control adhesives, coatings, polymers, sealants, biomaterials, and other fluids worldwide. It operates through three segments: Industrial Precision Solutions; Medical and Fluid Solutions; and Advanced Technology Solutions.