Arizona State Retirement System Increases Stock Position in Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Co. (NYSE:BAH)

Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Co. (NYSE:BAH) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 37,523 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 435 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton were worth $4,829,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,341,533 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $381,898,000 after purchasing an additional 58,038 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton by 28.5% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,288,101 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $209,651,000 after purchasing an additional 285,621 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 957,300 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $155,810,000 after purchasing an additional 32,897 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton by 51.7% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 951,605 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $122,472,000 after purchasing an additional 324,159 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 856,437 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $139,394,000 after purchasing an additional 9,480 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on BAH. TD Cowen decreased their price target on Booz Allen Hamilton from $200.00 to $155.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Booz Allen Hamilton from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. William Blair lowered Booz Allen Hamilton from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Booz Allen Hamilton from $180.00 to $164.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised Booz Allen Hamilton to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $158.27.

Booz Allen Hamilton Trading Up 7.7 %

Shares of BAH opened at $116.68 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $125.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $145.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 1.57 and a current ratio of 1.57. The company has a market capitalization of $14.78 billion, a PE ratio of 17.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.56. Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Co. has a fifty-two week low of $101.82 and a fifty-two week high of $190.59.

Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE:BAH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The business services provider reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.07. Booz Allen Hamilton had a return on equity of 68.97% and a net margin of 7.39%. As a group, analysts forecast that Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Co. will post 6.44 EPS for the current year.

Booz Allen Hamilton Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Booz Allen Hamilton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. Booz Allen Hamilton’s payout ratio is 32.79%.

Booz Allen Hamilton Profile

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation provides management and technology consulting, analytics, engineering, digital solutions, mission operations, and cyber services to governments, corporations, and not-for-profit organizations in the United States and internationally. It focuses on artificial intelligence services comprising of machine learning, predictive modeling, automation and decision analytics, and quantum computing.