California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 4,753 Shares of Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ALSN)

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its holdings in shares of Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ALSN) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 183,210 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 4,753 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Allison Transmission were worth $19,798,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its holdings in shares of Allison Transmission by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 125,354 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $13,542,000 after acquiring an additional 14,037 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Allison Transmission by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 656,336 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $70,924,000 after purchasing an additional 14,038 shares during the last quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Allison Transmission by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC now owns 80,527 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $8,702,000 after purchasing an additional 3,605 shares during the period. denkapparat Operations GmbH bought a new position in shares of Allison Transmission during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $343,000. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its holdings in Allison Transmission by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 12,668 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $1,369,000 after buying an additional 989 shares during the period. 96.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on ALSN. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Allison Transmission from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Allison Transmission from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Allison Transmission from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Allison Transmission from $82.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $101.13.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Ryan A. Milburn sold 4,546 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.20, for a total value of $437,325.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 14,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP John Coll sold 1,788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.33, for a total value of $170,450.04. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 15,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,466,938.04. This represents a 10.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Allison Transmission Stock Down 4.9 %

Shares of NYSE ALSN opened at $86.01 on Friday. Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.49 and a 52-week high of $122.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.35 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $102.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $106.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a current ratio of 3.04.

Allison Transmission (NYSE:ALSN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The auto parts company reported $2.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.11. Allison Transmission had a return on equity of 47.95% and a net margin of 22.67%. Sell-side analysts expect that Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. will post 9.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Allison Transmission Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is an increase from Allison Transmission’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.26%. Allison Transmission’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.00%.

Allison Transmission declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, February 20th that permits the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the auto parts company to purchase up to 57.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Allison Transmission Company Profile

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.