Woodline Partners LP Acquires New Position in Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL)

Woodline Partners LP acquired a new position in Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 16,869 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $782,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Rollins by 17.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,557,923 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $395,819,000 after acquiring an additional 1,282,508 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Rollins by 16.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,267,060 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $197,778,000 after buying an additional 617,876 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Rollins during the 4th quarter valued at $176,784,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Rollins by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,046,844 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $141,221,000 after buying an additional 322,610 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in Rollins by 389.2% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,770,131 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $128,396,000 after buying an additional 2,203,859 shares during the last quarter. 51.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on ROL. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Rollins from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Rollins from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $61.00 price target on shares of Rollins and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Rollins from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Rollins from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Rollins has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $55.57.

Rollins Trading Up 0.6%

Rollins stock traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $57.25. 3,986,761 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,743,253. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $55.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $51.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.64 and a beta of 0.79. Rollins, Inc. has a 52-week low of $45.34 and a 52-week high of $57.63.

Rollins (NYSE:ROL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The business services provider reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.22. The business had revenue of $822.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $817.09 million. Rollins had a net margin of 13.76% and a return on equity of 37.94%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.20 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Rollins, Inc. will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Rollins Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th will be given a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 12th. Rollins's dividend payout ratio is presently 66.67%.

Insider Transactions at Rollins

In other news, Chairman John F. Wilson sold 40,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.77, for a total value of $2,270,800.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 662,727 shares of the company's stock, valued at $37,623,011.79. This represents a 5.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Traci Hornfeck sold 3,224 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.10, for a total transaction of $171,194.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,602 shares in the company, valued at $509,866.20. This represents a 25.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 48,987 shares of company stock valued at $2,751,525 in the last three months. 4.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Rollins Profile

Rollins, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides pest and wildlife control services to residential and commercial customers in the United States and internationally. The company offers pest control services to residential properties protecting from common pests, including rodents, insects, and wildlife.