Zacks Investment Research Downgrades ITT Inc. (NYSE:ITT) to Hold

ITT Inc. (NYSE:ITT) was downgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Thursday.

According to Zacks, “ITT Inc. has a robust earnings surprise history, having beaten estimates thrice in the trailing four quarters. Also, the company’s current year estimates have moved north over the past couple of months. The company’s bottom line is expected to benefit from improved operating efficiency and successful cost containment actions. Further, ITT Inc.’s shares have outperformed the industry average over year to date. ITT Inc. has achieved operational excellence through its Lean Six Sigma program. However, on the negative side, softness in industrial, oil & gas markets and aerospace and defense business is expected to affect client spending adversely, thus restricting the company’s growth to a great extent. Also, sluggish aerospace and defense business might add to the company’s woes. Uncertainty about the new U.S. Administration’s policies also poses a huge risk to the company’s operations.”

ITT has been the subject of a number of other research reports. BidaskClub downgraded shares of ITT from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of ITT from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. ValuEngine upgraded shares of ITT from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 6th. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) downgraded shares of ITT from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $43.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.57.

Shares of ITT (NYSE:ITT) traded down 1.25% on Thursday, hitting $40.96. The stock had a trading volume of 588,405 shares. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $40.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.62. The firm has a market cap of $3.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.88 and a beta of 1.47. ITT has a 12 month low of $31.08 and a 12 month high of $44.00.

ITT (NYSE:ITT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 8th. The conglomerate reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $625.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $607.08 million. ITT had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 14.65%. ITT’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.59 EPS. Analysts anticipate that ITT will post $2.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in ITT by 10.2% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,295,962 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $53,160,000 after buying an additional 119,933 shares during the period. Advantus Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in ITT by 3.0% in the first quarter. Advantus Capital Management Inc now owns 11,293 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $463,000 after buying an additional 332 shares during the period. Teachers Advisors LLC boosted its stake in ITT by 24.4% in the fourth quarter. Teachers Advisors LLC now owns 1,120,718 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $43,226,000 after buying an additional 219,763 shares during the period. Clinton Group Inc. purchased a new stake in ITT during the first quarter valued at $307,000. Finally, Citadel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in ITT by 63.1% in the first quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC now owns 22,886 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $939,000 after buying an additional 8,850 shares during the period. 92.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About ITT

ITT Corporation (ITT) is a diversified manufacturer of engineered critical components and technology solutions for industrial markets. The Company’s product and service offerings are organized in four segments: Industrial Process, Motion Technologies, Interconnect Solutions and Control Technologies. Industrial Process manufactures engineered fluid process equipment, and is a provider of plant optimization, solutions and aftermarket services and parts.