Eaton Co. plc (NYSE:ETN) Shares Sold by GLOBALT Investments LLC GA

GLOBALT Investments LLC GA decreased its holdings in shares of Eaton Co. plc (NYSE:ETN) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 30,575 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 513 shares during the quarter. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA’s holdings in Eaton were worth $10,147,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Eaton by 0.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,069,341 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,665,342,000 after buying an additional 56,516 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Eaton by 15.1% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,421,626 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $836,938,000 after buying an additional 316,830 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Eaton by 32.8% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,419,200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $801,798,000 after buying an additional 597,700 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Eaton by 253.2% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,273,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $753,590,000 after buying an additional 1,629,856 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Eaton by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,255,566 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $748,555,000 after buying an additional 37,138 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Eaton from $350.00 to $348.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Eaton from $405.00 to $376.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Eaton from $382.00 to $326.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Eaton from $390.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded shares of Eaton from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $340.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $357.68.

Eaton Trading Up 3.8 %

Shares of ETN opened at $294.53 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.50 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $316.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $331.81. Eaton Co. plc has a 1-year low of $255.65 and a 1-year high of $379.99. The stock has a market cap of $115.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.09.

Eaton (NYSE:ETN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.82 by $0.01. Eaton had a net margin of 15.25% and a return on equity of 22.62%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.55 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Eaton Co. plc will post 12.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eaton Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $1.04 dividend. This is a boost from Eaton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.94. This represents a $4.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Eaton’s payout ratio is presently 43.79%.

Eaton Company Profile

Eaton Corporation plc operates as a power management company worldwide. The company’s Electrical Americas and Electrical Global segment provides electrical components, industrial components, power distribution and assemblies, residential products, single and three phase power quality and connectivity products, wiring devices, circuit protection products, utility power distribution products, power reliability equipment, and services, as well as hazardous duty electrical equipment, emergency lighting, fire detection, explosion-proof instrumentation, and structural support systems.