Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) Director Sells $474,573.00 in Stock

Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE:ROK) Director Patricia Watson sold 1,100 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $431.43, for a total transaction of $474,573.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 6,385 shares in the company, valued at $2,754,680.55. The trade was a 14.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Rockwell Automation Trading Down 0.0%

Shares of Rockwell Automation stock opened at $430.73 on Monday. Rockwell Automation, Inc. has a 1-year low of $332.71 and a 1-year high of $497.36. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $458.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $427.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.83 billion, a PE ratio of 40.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.54.

Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The industrial products company reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.38 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. Rockwell Automation had a return on equity of 39.83% and a net margin of 13.39%.Rockwell Automation’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.82 EPS. Rockwell Automation has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.000-13.300 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Rockwell Automation, Inc. will post 13.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Rockwell Automation Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be issued a dividend of $1.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. This represents a $5.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Rockwell Automation’s payout ratio is currently 51.73%.

Rockwell Automation declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, June 9th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the industrial products company to reacquire up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ROK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Evercore set a $485.00 price objective on shares of Rockwell Automation in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. HSBC increased their price target on Rockwell Automation from $445.00 to $490.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Rockwell Automation from $448.00 to $487.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Barclays increased their target price on Rockwell Automation from $400.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Rockwell Automation from $470.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $468.19.

Institutional Trading of Rockwell Automation

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ROK. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in shares of Rockwell Automation by 50,536.8% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 84,037,850 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $41,605,459,000 after purchasing an additional 83,871,888 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Rockwell Automation in the second quarter worth about $6,129,376,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Rockwell Automation by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,996,130 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,943,844,000 after buying an additional 202,705 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Rockwell Automation by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,924,501 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,133,397,000 after buying an additional 17,855 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Rockwell Automation by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,921,840 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,136,801,000 after buying an additional 276,021 shares in the last quarter. 75.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Rockwell Automation

Rockwell Automation is a global industrial automation and digital transformation company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The firm designs, manufactures and supports control systems, industrial control hardware and software, and related services that help manufacturers and industrial operators automate processes, improve productivity and enable data-driven decision making. Rockwell traces its heritage to the Allen-Bradley and Rockwell automation businesses and positions itself as a provider of integrated automation solutions across discrete and process industries.

The company’s product portfolio includes programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs), variable frequency drives, sensors, safety components and other industrial control hardware, often marketed under the Allen-Bradley brand.