Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK)

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock traders acquired 4,138 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 59% compared to the average daily volume of 2,610 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on SWK. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Stanley Black & Decker from $70.00 to $60.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Stanley Black & Decker from $93.00 to $60.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Stanley Black & Decker in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $103.00 target price for the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Stanley Black & Decker from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Stanley Black & Decker from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $69.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $91.10.

Stanley Black & Decker Price Performance

NYSE SWK traded up $0.72 during trading on Friday, hitting $71.42. 2,275,722 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,861,613. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The company has a market cap of $11.05 billion, a PE ratio of 36.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.19. Stanley Black & Decker has a fifty-two week low of $53.91 and a fifty-two week high of $110.88. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $67.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $79.53.

Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $3.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.73 billion. Stanley Black & Decker had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 1.92%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Stanley Black & Decker will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

Stanley Black & Decker Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 3rd. Stanley Black & Decker's payout ratio is 136.10%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Stanley Black & Decker by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,186,011 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,540,445,000 after buying an additional 495,103 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Stanley Black & Decker by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 18,413,913 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,478,454,000 after buying an additional 246,800 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Stanley Black & Decker by 126.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,485,421 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $440,424,000 after buying an additional 3,063,114 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Stanley Black & Decker by 22.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,139,196 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $332,336,000 after buying an additional 763,219 shares during the period. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in shares of Stanley Black & Decker by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 3,895,026 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $312,732,000 after buying an additional 18,778 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.77% of the company's stock.

Stanley Black & Decker Company Profile

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc engages in the provision of power and hand tools, and related accessories, products, services and equipment for oil and gas, infrastructure applications, commercial electronic security and monitoring systems, healthcare solutions, and mechanical access solutions. It operates through the Tools and Outdoor and Industrial segments.