Legal & General Group Plc Increases Stake in ATS Corporation $ATS

Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of ATS Corporation (NYSE:ATS) by 9.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 542,023 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 47,414 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in ATS were worth $14,930,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ATS. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in ATS by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,397,166 shares of the company’s stock worth $93,582,000 after buying an additional 55,731 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of ATS by 45.2% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,251,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,794,000 after buying an additional 389,862 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of ATS by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,196,732 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,354,000 after buying an additional 8,505 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of ATS by 11.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 874,140 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,874,000 after acquiring an additional 90,700 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of ATS by 79.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 434,044 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,821,000 after acquiring an additional 191,842 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.84% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of ATS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, February 15th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of ATS from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of ATS in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of ATS from $51.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of ATS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.50.

ATS Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of ATS opened at $29.87 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.64 and a quick ratio of 1.36. ATS Corporation has a 1 year low of $23.84 and a 1 year high of $35.82. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.79. The firm has a market cap of $2.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.44 and a beta of 1.20.

ATS (NYSE:ATS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.32 by ($0.06). ATS had a return on equity of 9.40% and a net margin of 2.40%.The company had revenue of $535.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $529.43 million. On average, equities analysts expect that ATS Corporation will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ATS Company Profile

ATS Corporation (NYSE: ATS) is a Canada-based global provider of automation and energy solutions. Headquartered in Cambridge, Ontario, the company specializes in the design, engineering and manufacturing of custom automation and test systems, as well as fluid handling and control products. Since its founding in 1978, ATS has focused on delivering integrated hardware and software solutions that help original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) improve efficiency, quality and throughput across a range of industries.

Through its Automation segment, ATS develops bespoke assembly and testing platforms for sectors such as life sciences, consumer electronics, automotive and industrial equipment.