Eaton Co. plc (ETN) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.94 on May 24th

Eaton Co. plc (NYSE:ETN) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.94 per share by the industrial products company on Friday, May 24th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 3rd.

Eaton has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.6% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 15 consecutive years. Eaton has a payout ratio of 32.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Eaton to earn $11.55 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.6%.

Eaton Price Performance

Shares of Eaton stock opened at $318.93 on Thursday. Eaton has a twelve month low of $161.12 and a twelve month high of $331.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.77, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $303.06 and its 200 day moving average price is $257.09.

Eaton (NYSE:ETN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The industrial products company reported $2.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.47 by $0.08. Eaton had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 13.88%. The company had revenue of $5.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.91 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.06 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Eaton will post 10.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Eaton

In related news, insider Olivier Leonetti sold 4,461 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.00, for a total transaction of $1,213,392.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $171,360. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Eaton news, insider Heath B. Monesmith sold 13,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.40, for a total value of $3,796,067.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 69,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,244,140.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Olivier Leonetti sold 4,461 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.00, for a total transaction of $1,213,392.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 630 shares in the company, valued at $171,360. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 38,969 shares of company stock worth $10,904,774 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on ETN. Mizuho raised their price objective on Eaton from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Eaton from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised Eaton from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $286.00 to $371.00 in a research report on Friday, April 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Eaton from $287.00 to $328.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Eaton from $255.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.60.

Eaton Company Profile

Eaton Corporation plc operates as a power management company worldwide. The company's Electrical Americas and Electrical Global segment provides electrical components, industrial components, power distribution and assemblies, residential products, single and three phase power quality and connectivity products, wiring devices, circuit protection products, utility power distribution products, power reliability equipment, and services, as well as hazardous duty electrical equipment, emergency lighting, fire detection, explosion-proof instrumentation, and structural support systems.