MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA) Stock Rating Upgraded by B. Riley

B. Riley upgraded shares of MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA) to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Monday, Zacks.com reports.

MSA has been the topic of several other research reports. William Blair raised shares of MSA Safety to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of MSA Safety from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Strong Buy” and a consensus target price of $207.50.

MSA Safety Trading Up 3.5 %

Shares of MSA opened at $173.66 on Monday. MSA Safety has a twelve month low of $157.34 and a twelve month high of $200.60. The company has a market cap of $6.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.10 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $173.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $180.62.

MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.05. MSA Safety had a net margin of 15.16% and a return on equity of 29.14%. The business had revenue of $432.68 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $449.95 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.78 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that MSA Safety will post 7.75 EPS for the current year.

MSA Safety Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a $0.51 dividend. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. MSA Safety’s payout ratio is presently 29.48%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MSA. Cooke & Bieler LP bought a new position in MSA Safety during the 2nd quarter worth about $60,236,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSA Safety by 1,601.5% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 312,222 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $60,443,000 after buying an additional 293,872 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSA Safety by 219.8% in the 2nd quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 306,943 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $57,610,000 after buying an additional 210,968 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 77,960 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MSA Safety by 748.6% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 65,552 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,303,000 after buying an additional 57,827 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.