Allegion plc (NYSE:ALLE) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Allegion plc (NYSE:ALLE – Get Rating) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,340,000 shares, an increase of 5.5% from the February 13th total of 1,270,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 643,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.1 days. Currently, 1.5% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on ALLE. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Allegion from $121.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 19th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Allegion from $116.00 to $132.00 in a research report on Monday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Allegion from $108.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 23rd. Vertical Research upgraded shares of Allegion from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $128.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 3rd. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Allegion from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Allegion presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $122.78.

Institutional Trading of Allegion

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ALLE. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in Allegion by 386.6% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,120,473 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $109,694,000 after purchasing an additional 890,210 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Allegion by 7,538.9% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 881,906 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $79,089,000 after acquiring an additional 870,361 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Allegion in the 4th quarter worth $76,640,000. Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of Allegion by 20.8% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,807,096 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $342,469,000 after acquiring an additional 654,482 shares during the period. Finally, Select Equity Group L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Allegion by 126.3% in the 4th quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 462,787 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $48,713,000 after acquiring an additional 258,301 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.78% of the company’s stock.

Allegion Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of Allegion stock opened at $103.32 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $9.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.95, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $114.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $106.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20. Allegion has a 12-month low of $87.33 and a 12-month high of $123.46.

Allegion (NYSE:ALLE – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 22nd. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $861.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $849.15 million. Allegion had a net margin of 14.00% and a return on equity of 61.54%. Allegion’s quarterly revenue was up 21.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.11 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Allegion will post 6.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Allegion Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 14th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.74%. This is a boost from Allegion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Allegion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.75%.

Allegion Company Profile

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Allegion Plc engages in the provision of security products and solutions that keep people safe, secure, and productive. It operates through the Allegion Americas and Allegion International segments. Its brands include CISA, Interflex, LCN, Schlage, SimonsVoss, and Von Duprin. The company was founded on May 9, 2013 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.