Legal & General Group Plc Sells 468,498 Shares of Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its position in Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK - Free Report) by 41.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 669,276 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 468,498 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.43% of Stanley Black & Decker worth $53,736,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Stanley Black & Decker by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,186,011 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,540,445,000 after acquiring an additional 495,103 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Stanley Black & Decker by 22.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,139,196 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $332,336,000 after buying an additional 763,219 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its stake in shares of Stanley Black & Decker by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,895,026 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $312,732,000 after buying an additional 18,778 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Stanley Black & Decker by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,755,653 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $300,756,000 after buying an additional 175,801 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Stanley Black & Decker by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,098,469 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $248,776,000 after acquiring an additional 129,614 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.77% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SWK has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Stanley Black & Decker in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $103.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Stanley Black & Decker from $121.00 to $120.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Mizuho raised Stanley Black & Decker from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $110.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Stanley Black & Decker from $135.00 to $118.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Stanley Black & Decker from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $102.20.

Stanley Black & Decker Trading Up 1.8 %

SWK stock traded up $1.03 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $57.84. 783,835 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,743,316. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.14. Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. has a 52-week low of $53.91 and a 52-week high of $110.88. The business has a 50 day moving average of $77.85 and a 200-day moving average of $86.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 1.30.

Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The industrial products company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.21. Stanley Black & Decker had a net margin of 1.92% and a return on equity of 7.50%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Stanley Black & Decker Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th were given a $0.82 dividend. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 4th. Stanley Black & Decker's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 169.07%.

About Stanley Black & Decker

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 Outdoor and Industrial segments.