Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) Receives Consensus Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Hold" by the eight research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $552.63.

A number of research firms have commented on IT. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Gartner from $564.00 to $555.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Gartner from $579.00 to $605.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays raised Gartner from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $525.00 to $600.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. StockNews.com raised Gartner from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Gartner from $529.00 to $531.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Gartner news, SVP John J. Rinello sold 90 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $530.51, for a total value of $47,745.90. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 3,259 shares in the company, valued at $1,728,932.09. This represents a 2.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director James C. Smith sold 5,000 shares of Gartner stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $524.02, for a total transaction of $2,620,100.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 509,457 shares of the company's stock, valued at $266,965,657.14. This trade represents a 0.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 5,690 shares of company stock worth $2,981,025. Corporate insiders own 3.60% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gartner

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Gartner in the fourth quarter worth $460,541,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Gartner in the fourth quarter worth about $244,799,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Gartner during the 4th quarter worth about $165,476,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Gartner by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,822,122 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,367,233,000 after acquiring an additional 223,087 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Funds Management LTD bought a new position in shares of Gartner in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $97,518,000. 91.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Gartner Stock Performance

NYSE IT traded up $3.26 on Monday, hitting $517.03. The stock had a trading volume of 502,530 shares, compared to its average volume of 487,294. The company's 50-day moving average is $510.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $507.95. The stock has a market cap of $39.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.25, a P/E/G ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.31. Gartner has a one year low of $411.15 and a one year high of $584.01.

Gartner (NYSE:IT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The information technology services provider reported $5.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.22 by $2.23. Gartner had a return on equity of 136.32% and a net margin of 20.00%. The firm had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.04 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Gartner will post 12.5 earnings per share for the current year.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc operates as a research and advisory company in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Research, Conferences, and Consulting. The Research segment delivers its research primarily through a subscription service that include on-demand access to published research content, data and benchmarks, and direct access to a network of research experts.