Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) Short Interest Down 16.6% in March

Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,570,000 shares, a drop of 16.6% from the March 15th total of 4,280,000 shares. Approximately 2.0% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,520,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Textron

In other news, VP Mark S. Bamford sold 5,451 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.68, for a total transaction of $396,178.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 18,223 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,324,447.64. The trade was a 23.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Textron

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Textron by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,733,335 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $591,523,000 after acquiring an additional 1,167,105 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its holdings in shares of Textron by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 7,483,692 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $572,465,000 after purchasing an additional 333,127 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Textron by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,595,861 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $350,619,000 after purchasing an additional 164,964 shares in the last quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Textron by 19.4% during the 4th quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 1,859,703 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $142,249,000 after buying an additional 302,712 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Textron by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,803,778 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $137,971,000 after acquiring an additional 155,384 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TXT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Textron from $100.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Textron from $111.00 to $107.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Bank of America cut shares of Textron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $110.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of Textron from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Vertical Research upgraded shares of Textron from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $91.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $89.30.

Textron Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TXT opened at $66.00 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.76. The company has a market capitalization of $11.99 billion, a PE ratio of 15.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $70.82 and a 200-day moving average of $77.66. Textron has a one year low of $57.70 and a one year high of $95.86.

Textron (NYSE:TXT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The aerospace company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.07. Textron had a return on equity of 14.92% and a net margin of 6.01%. The firm had revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.60 EPS. Textron’s revenue was down 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Textron will post 6.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Textron Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.02 per share. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Textron’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 1.86%.

About Textron

Textron Inc operates in the aircraft, defense, industrial, and finance businesses worldwide. It operates through six segments: Textron Aviation, Bell, Textron Systems, Industrial, Textron eAviation, and Finance. The Textron Aviation segment manufactures, sells, and services business jets, turboprop and piston engine aircraft, and military trainer and defense aircraft; and offers maintenance, inspection, and repair services, as well as sells commercial parts.