Gates Industrial Corp PLC (NYSE:GTES) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Gates Industrial Corp PLC (NYSE:GTES) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,780,000 shares, an increase of 7.3% from the March 15th total of 7,250,000 shares. Currently, 4.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 3,000,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Gates Industrial

In other Gates Industrial news, major shareholder Blackstone Inc. sold 24,276,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.04, for a total transaction of $292,284,244.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 107,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,292,180.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Gates Industrial news, Director Neil P. Simpkins acquired 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $12.20 per share, with a total value of $12,200,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 1,000,000 shares in the company, valued at $12,200,000. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Blackstone Inc. sold 24,276,100 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.04, for a total transaction of $292,284,244.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 107,324 shares in the company, valued at $1,292,180.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have acquired a total of 1,030,492 shares of company stock valued at $12,582,402 over the last three months. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Gates Industrial by 45.9% in the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 27,614 shares of the company’s stock worth $489,000 after purchasing an additional 8,693 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Gates Industrial in the first quarter valued at $28,390,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in Gates Industrial in the fourth quarter valued at $164,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Gates Industrial by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,329,789 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,726,000 after acquiring an additional 1,519,041 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Gates Industrial by 71.4% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,185,811 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,914,000 after acquiring an additional 493,963 shares in the last quarter. 98.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Gates Industrial from $12.50 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Gates Industrial in a report on Thursday, February 29th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $21.00 price target on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Gates Industrial from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. KeyCorp raised shares of Gates Industrial from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $18.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Gates Industrial from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.00.

Gates Industrial Price Performance

NYSE GTES traded down $0.07 on Wednesday, reaching $17.27. 1,681,616 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,879,918. Gates Industrial has a 12 month low of $10.68 and a 12 month high of $17.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 3.08 and a quick ratio of 2.25. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $13.52. The stock has a market cap of $4.56 billion, a PE ratio of 20.40 and a beta of 1.57.

Gates Industrial (NYSE:GTES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.10. Gates Industrial had a net margin of 6.52% and a return on equity of 10.14%. The business had revenue of $863.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $892.40 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Gates Industrial will post 1.32 earnings per share for the current year.

About Gates Industrial

Gates Industrial Corporation PLC designs and manufactures power transmission equipment. Its products serves harsh and hazardous industries such as agriculture, construction, manufacturing and energy, to everyday consumer applications such as printers, power washers, automatic doors and vacuum cleaners and virtually every form of transportation.