Columbia Asset Management Takes $489,000 Position in Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ALSN)

Columbia Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ALSN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 4,525 shares of the auto parts company’s stock, valued at approximately $489,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ALSN. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its stake in shares of Allison Transmission by 301.1% in the fourth quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 2,378,731 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $257,046,000 after purchasing an additional 1,785,687 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Allison Transmission by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,961,834 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $188,511,000 after buying an additional 79,506 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Allison Transmission by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,682,076 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $161,597,000 after buying an additional 13,252 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its position in Allison Transmission by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,061,351 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $114,690,000 after buying an additional 69,008 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Allison Transmission in the fourth quarter worth $108,916,000. 96.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Allison Transmission

In other Allison Transmission news, VP Ryan A. Milburn sold 4,546 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.20, for a total value of $437,325.20. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 14,138 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,360,075.60. The trade was a 24.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on ALSN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Allison Transmission from $129.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. StockNews.com lowered Allison Transmission from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Allison Transmission from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Allison Transmission from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Allison Transmission from $82.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Allison Transmission currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $101.13.

Allison Transmission Stock Performance

Shares of ALSN opened at $97.27 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.71 and a beta of 1.02. Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.49 and a 52-week high of $122.53. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 3.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $104.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $106.59.

Allison Transmission (NYSE:ALSN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The auto parts company reported $2.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.11. Allison Transmission had a net margin of 22.67% and a return on equity of 47.95%. Research analysts predict that Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. will post 9.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Allison Transmission declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, February 20th that allows the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the auto parts company to purchase up to 57.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Allison Transmission Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.11%. This is a boost from Allison Transmission’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Allison Transmission’s payout ratio is 13.00%.

About Allison Transmission

Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and medium- and heavy-tactical U.S. defense vehicles, and electrified propulsion systems worldwide. It provides commercial-duty on-highway, off-highway and defense fully automatic transmissions, and electric hybrid and fully electric systems.