Gartner (NYSE:IT) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Gartner (NYSE:IT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Friday morning.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on IT. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Gartner from $564.00 to $555.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Gartner from $470.00 to $460.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Gartner from $605.00 to $557.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Barclays raised Gartner from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $525.00 to $600.00 in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Gartner in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Gartner has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $546.63.

Gartner Stock Performance

Shares of Gartner stock opened at $430.03 on Friday. Gartner has a one year low of $409.50 and a one year high of $584.01. The company has a market cap of $33.03 billion, a PE ratio of 26.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $502.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $507.99.

Gartner (NYSE:IT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information technology services provider reported $5.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.22 by $2.23. The business had revenue of $1.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.69 billion. Gartner had a return on equity of 116.56% and a net margin of 20.00%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.04 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Gartner will post 12.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Gartner

In other news, Director Eileen Serra sold 1,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $489.77, for a total value of $587,724.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,627 shares in the company, valued at $796,855.79. This trade represents a 42.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP John J. Rinello sold 90 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $530.51, for a total value of $47,745.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 3,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,728,932.09. This represents a 2.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Gartner during the fourth quarter valued at $460,541,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Gartner during the fourth quarter valued at $244,799,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Gartner during the fourth quarter valued at $165,476,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of Gartner by 184.6% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 390,472 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $189,172,000 after acquiring an additional 253,288 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Gartner by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,822,122 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,367,233,000 after acquiring an additional 223,087 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.51% of the company’s stock.

Gartner Company Profile

Gartner, Inc operates as a research and advisory company in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Research, Conferences, and Consulting. The Research segment delivers its research primarily through a subscription service that include on-demand access to published research content, data and benchmarks, and direct access to a network of research experts.