Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK) Short Interest Update

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,660,000 shares, an increase of 26.6% from the January 31st total of 5,260,000 shares. Currently, 4.3% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,710,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.9 days.

Stanley Black & Decker Price Performance

NYSE:SWK traded up $3.96 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $89.07. 2,539,344 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,842,706. The firm has a market cap of $13.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.25. Stanley Black & Decker has a 52 week low of $77.70 and a 52 week high of $110.88. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $85.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $92.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The industrial products company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.21. Stanley Black & Decker had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 1.92%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Stanley Black & Decker will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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Stanley Black & Decker Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be given a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.68%. Stanley Black & Decker's payout ratio is 169.07%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SWK. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 495,103 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Stanley Black & Decker by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 18,413,913 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $1,478,454,000 after purchasing an additional 246,800 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Stanley Black & Decker by 6.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,062,992 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $998,107,000 after purchasing an additional 549,531 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Stanley Black & Decker by 126.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,485,421 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $440,424,000 after purchasing an additional 3,063,114 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 763,219 shares during the last quarter. 87.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SWK has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Stanley Black & Decker from $121.00 to $120.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on 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. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Stanley Black & Decker in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $103.00 target price for the company. Barclays cut their target price on Stanley Black & Decker from $100.00 to $94.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Stanley Black & Decker has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $103.00.

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 Storage segment, and Industrial segment.