MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE:MSA) Short Interest Update

MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE:MSA) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 226,100 shares, a decrease of 27.0% from the August 15th total of 309,600 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 157,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.4 days. Currently, 0.6% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling at MSA Safety

In other news, CEO Nishan J. Vartanian sold 3,945 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.00, for a total transaction of $745,605.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 31,953 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,039,117. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 6.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in MSA Safety by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,826,135 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $645,966,000 after acquiring an additional 23,526 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of MSA Safety by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 770,641 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $144,642,000 after purchasing an additional 22,366 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of MSA Safety by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 738,951 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $138,695,000 after purchasing an additional 22,979 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of MSA Safety by 12.2% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 718,969 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $139,186,000 after purchasing an additional 77,960 shares during the period. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in MSA Safety by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 707,534 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $136,972,000 after acquiring an additional 49,670 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

MSA Safety Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of MSA Safety stock traded up $2.57 during trading on Monday, hitting $179.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 102,194 shares, compared to its average volume of 148,813. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.45. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $181.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $184.62. MSA Safety has a 52 week low of $147.35 and a 52 week high of $200.60. The company has a market capitalization of $7.05 billion, a PE ratio of 26.14 and a beta of 0.99.

MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.97 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $462.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $461.30 million. MSA Safety had a net margin of 14.97% and a return on equity of 30.64%. Equities research analysts predict that MSA Safety will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current year.

MSA Safety Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.51 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.14%. MSA Safety’s payout ratio is 30.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MSA. William Blair upgraded MSA Safety to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on MSA Safety from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th.

MSA Safety Company Profile

MSA Safety Incorporated develops, manufactures, and supplies safety products and technology solutions that protect people and facility infrastructures in the fire service, energy, utility, construction, and industrial manufacturing applications, as well as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration industries worldwide.