Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Lowers Stake in Otis Worldwide Co. (NYSE:OTIS)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lessened its stake in Otis Worldwide Co. (NYSE:OTIS) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 374,695 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,956 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Otis Worldwide were worth $34,700,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Otis Worldwide by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,455 shares of the company’s stock valued at $320,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its stake in Otis Worldwide by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 2,867 shares of the company’s stock valued at $299,000 after buying an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC grew its holdings in Otis Worldwide by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 3,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $309,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment increased its position in Otis Worldwide by 1.4% during the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 9,428 shares of the company’s stock worth $980,000 after buying an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc raised its holdings in shares of Otis Worldwide by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,676 shares of the company’s stock worth $155,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on OTIS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Otis Worldwide from $108.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Otis Worldwide from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $104.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Otis Worldwide from $94.00 to $91.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group began coverage on Otis Worldwide in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $113.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Otis Worldwide from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $102.88.

Otis Worldwide Stock Performance

NYSE OTIS opened at $100.64 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.79 and a beta of 1.06. Otis Worldwide Co. has a one year low of $90.12 and a one year high of $106.33. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $95.24 and its 200 day moving average price is $97.59.

Otis Worldwide (NYSE:OTIS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.95 by ($0.02). Otis Worldwide had a net margin of 11.53% and a negative return on equity of 31.76%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Otis Worldwide Co. will post 4.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Otis Worldwide Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Otis Worldwide’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.42%.

Otis Worldwide declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, January 16th that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 5.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Otis Worldwide

In other news, EVP Peiming Zheng sold 32,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.43, for a total transaction of $3,119,988.42. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 169 shares in the company, valued at $16,127.67. This trade represents a 99.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nora E. Lafreniere sold 1,700 shares of Otis Worldwide stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.91, for a total value of $163,047.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 24,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,390,748.57. The trade was a 6.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 105,621 shares of company stock valued at $10,046,255 over the last 90 days. 0.23% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Otis Worldwide Profile

Otis Worldwide Corporation engages in manufacturing, installation, and servicing of elevators and escalators in the United States, China, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, New Equipment and Service. The New Equipment segment designs, manufactures, sells, and installs a range of passenger and freight elevators, as well as escalators and moving walkways for residential and commercial buildings, and infrastructure projects.