Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE:RBA) Sees Strong Trading Volume After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated (NYSE:RBA – Get Rating) (TSE:RBA) saw unusually-strong trading volume on Tuesday after Raymond James raised their price target on the stock from $55.00 to $60.00. Raymond James currently has a market perform rating on the stock. Approximately 1,007,695 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 31% from the previous session’s volume of 1,470,826 shares.The stock last traded at $60.29 and had previously closed at $61.49.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on RBA. Bank of America cut shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $74.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 8th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. OTR Global reaffirmed a “negative” rating on shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers in a research note on Wednesday, November 2nd. Barrington Research raised Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $60.78.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers by 22.5% in the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 222,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $12,817,000 after purchasing an additional 40,779 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 460,062 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $26,605,000 after purchasing an additional 19,051 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $24,201,000. Pendal Group Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $429,000. Finally, Seelaus Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 7,529 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $435,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the period. 81.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Stock Down 4.5 %

The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $62.51. The firm has a market cap of $6.52 billion, a PE ratio of 21.52, a PEG ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.13.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE:RBA – Get Rating) (TSE:RBA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 7th. The business services provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $411.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $366.23 million. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers had a return on equity of 25.52% and a net margin of 18.49%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 10th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.84%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 9th. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers’s payout ratio is 39.56%.

About Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers

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Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Inc is an industrial auctioneer, which engages in the sale of equipment to on-site and online bidders. It operates through the following segments: Auctions and Marketplaces, Ritchie Bros. Financial Services and Mascus. The Auctions and Marketplaces segment consists of live on site auctions, online auctions and marketplaces, and brokerage service.