StockNews.com Begins Coverage on H&E Equipment Services (NASDAQ:HEES)

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of H&E Equipment Services (NASDAQ:HEES) in a research note released on Saturday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

Separately, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $92.00 target price (up from $60.00) on shares of H&E Equipment Services in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.33.

H&E Equipment Services Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of HEES stock opened at $94.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.09, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.64. The company has a market capitalization of $3.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.06 and a beta of 1.94. H&E Equipment Services has a 52-week low of $40.93 and a 52-week high of $101.28. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $92.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.96.

H&E Equipment Services (NASDAQ:HEES) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 21st. The industrial products company reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $384.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $372.50 million. H&E Equipment Services had a return on equity of 25.46% and a net margin of 9.47%. Research analysts anticipate that H&E Equipment Services will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

H&E Equipment Services Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. H&E Equipment Services’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.64%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of H&E Equipment Services by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,453 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $71,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in H&E Equipment Services by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 12,280 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $601,000 after purchasing an additional 282 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in H&E Equipment Services by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 64,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,163,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co grew its holdings in H&E Equipment Services by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 10,615 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $520,000 after buying an additional 574 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in H&E Equipment Services by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 130,881 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,408,000 after buying an additional 601 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.08% of the company’s stock.

H&E Equipment Services Company Profile

H&E Equipment Services, Inc engages in the provision of equipment services, which focus on heavy construction and industrial equipment. It operates through the following segments: Equipment Rentals, New Equipment Sales, Used Equipment Sales, Parts Sales, and Services. The Equipment Rentals segment focuses on renting construction and industrial equipment.