Energizer (NYSE:ENR) Upgraded to Equal Weight by Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Energizer (NYSE:ENR) from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Morgan Stanley currently has $33.00 price objective on the stock.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the company. StockNews.com lowered Energizer from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Energizer from $36.00 to $32.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $32.71.

Energizer Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Energizer stock opened at $29.29 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.71 and a beta of 1.04. Energizer has a 52-week low of $26.92 and a 52-week high of $37.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 19.36, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 2.03. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.51.

Energizer (NYSE:ENR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.05. Energizer had a return on equity of 123.29% and a net margin of 3.21%. The company had revenue of $663.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $664.10 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.64 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Energizer will post 3.21 EPS for the current year.

Energizer Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 21st. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.10%. Energizer’s dividend payout ratio is currently 93.02%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Energizer

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ENR. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Energizer by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,378,622 shares of the company’s stock valued at $297,115,000 after purchasing an additional 79,940 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Energizer by 28.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,860,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $219,800,000 after acquiring an additional 1,508,081 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management increased its position in shares of Energizer by 1.4% in the third quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,750,934 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,100,000 after acquiring an additional 23,844 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL raised its stake in shares of Energizer by 0.5% during the third quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 1,270,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,707,000 after acquiring an additional 6,823 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Energizer by 12.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 895,249 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,683,000 after purchasing an additional 99,353 shares during the period. 93.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Energizer

Energizer Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and distributes household batteries, specialty batteries, and lighting products worldwide. It offers lithium, alkaline, carbon zinc, nickel metal hydride, zinc air, and silver oxide batteries under the Energizer, Eveready, and Rayovac brands; primary, rechargeable, specialty, and hearing aid batteries; and handheld, headlights, lanterns, and area lights, as well as flashlights under the Hard Case, Dolphin, and WeatherReady brands.