Powell Industries (NASDAQ:POWL) Trading Up 3.7% – Still a Buy?

Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL)’s share price traded up 3.7% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $192.67 and last traded at $193.6910. 96,453 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 787,460 shares. The stock had previously closed at $186.72.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on Powell Industries from $142.33 to $160.33 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Powell Industries in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Powell Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Texas Capital raised Powell Industries to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Glj Research assumed coverage on Powell Industries in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. They set a “hold” rating and a $150.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Powell Industries presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $142.33.

Powell Industries Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $2.41 billion, a PE ratio of 12.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.81. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $61.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $46.28.

Powell Industries (NASDAQ:POWL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The industrial products company reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $251.18 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $255.34 million. Powell Industries had a return on equity of 30.64% and a net margin of 16.82%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.95 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Powell Industries, Inc. will post 13.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Powell Industries Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th were given a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Powell Industries’s payout ratio is currently 7.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Thomas W. Powell sold 149,334 shares of Powell Industries stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.41, for a total value of $25,000,004.94. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 1,796,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $300,682,087.62. The trade was a 7.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Treasurer David L. Eckenrode sold 885 shares of Powell Industries stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $168,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the treasurer directly owned 1,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $252,510. This represents a 39.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 244,248 shares of company stock valued at $43,496,270. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Powell Industries

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in POWL. Greenline Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Powell Industries in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Avanza Fonder AB acquired a new position in Powell Industries in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Powell Industries by 126.0% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 113 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Corp acquired a new position in Powell Industries in the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Powell Industries by 12,800.0% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 129 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.77% of the company’s stock.

About Powell Industries

Powell Industries, Inc is an industrial electrical engineering company specializing in the design, manufacture and integration of customized power control and distribution solutions. The firm’s offerings range from medium‐voltage switchgear and power control centers to bus duct, motor control centers and specialty transformers. Powell also provides automation systems, protective relaying, metering, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) platforms, and turnkey engineering services to help clients manage critical power infrastructure.

Serving the oil and gas, petrochemical, refining, utility, mining and industrial sectors, Powell’s products are engineered to meet demanding performance, safety and reliability requirements.