Short Interest in Donaldson Company, Inc. (NYSE:DCI) Declines By 8.5%

Donaldson Company, Inc. (NYSE:DCI) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,290,000 shares, a drop of 8.5% from the October 31st total of 1,410,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 519,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days. Currently, 1.1% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Transactions at Donaldson

In other Donaldson news, Director James Owens sold 5,210 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.74, for a total value of $373,765.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 17,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,276,111.12. This trade represents a 22.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Amy C. Becker sold 14,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.89, for a total transaction of $1,056,905.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 41,368 shares in the company, valued at $3,015,313.52. This represents a 25.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 167,805 shares of company stock valued at $12,310,222. Insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Donaldson

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Donaldson during the 2nd quarter valued at $14,288,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Donaldson by 91.4% during the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 370,756 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,531,000 after buying an additional 177,078 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Donaldson by 13.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,310,372 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $93,770,000 after buying an additional 153,342 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC boosted its stake in shares of Donaldson by 1,554.0% during the 2nd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 146,346 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $10,473,000 after buying an additional 137,498 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Donaldson by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,448,879 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $180,522,000 after buying an additional 118,156 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DCI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Donaldson from $76.00 to $71.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Donaldson from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Donaldson from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Donaldson from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Donaldson has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $74.00.

Donaldson Price Performance

NYSE:DCI traded up $0.71 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $73.39. 263,763 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 496,096. The company has a market capitalization of $8.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.04. Donaldson has a 12 month low of $60.78 and a 12 month high of $78.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $75.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $73.43.

Donaldson (NYSE:DCI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, December 3rd. The industrial products company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $900.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $888.88 million. Donaldson had a net margin of 11.54% and a return on equity of 29.47%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Donaldson will post 3.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Donaldson Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. Donaldson’s dividend payout ratio is 31.95%.

Donaldson Company Profile

Donaldson Company, Inc manufactures and sells filtration systems and replacement parts worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Mobile Solutions, Industrial Solutions, and Life Sciences. Its Mobile Solutions segment provides replacement filters for air and liquid filtration applications, such as air filtration systems; liquid filtration systems for fuel, lube, and hydraulic applications; exhaust and emissions systems and sensors; indicators; and monitoring systems.