Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Purchases 271,264 Shares of MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE:MSA)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE:MSA - Free Report) by 31.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,131,515 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 271,264 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned 2.88% of MSA Safety worth $187,573,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MSA. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of MSA Safety by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,883,844 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $643,825,000 after acquiring an additional 22,190 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of MSA Safety by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,999,779 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $331,503,000 after purchasing an additional 173,210 shares during the period. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of MSA Safety by 99.2% in the fourth quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,354,310 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $224,504,000 after buying an additional 674,560 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MSA Safety by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 806,438 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $133,718,000 after buying an additional 24,733 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in MSA Safety by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 767,634 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $127,251,000 after buying an additional 17,052 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at MSA Safety

In related news, CAO Jonathan D. Buck sold 717 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.00, for a total transaction of $114,003.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 3,673 shares in the company, valued at $584,007. This represents a 16.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. B. Riley restated a "buy" rating and set a $195.00 price target (down from $200.00) on shares of MSA Safety in a report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on MSA Safety from $175.00 to $161.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $193.20.

MSA Safety Stock Performance

MSA traded up $1.81 during trading on Friday, reaching $157.62. 40,479 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 177,652. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $149.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $161.59. The company has a market capitalization of $6.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.88 and a beta of 0.97. MSA Safety Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $127.86 and a fifty-two week high of $200.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 2.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $421.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $402.60 million. MSA Safety had a return on equity of 28.64% and a net margin of 15.76%. The company's revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.61 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that MSA Safety Incorporated will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSA Safety Company Profile

MSA Safety Incorporated develops, manufactures, and supplies safety products and technology solutions that protect people and facility infrastructures in the fire service, energy, utility, construction, and industrial manufacturing applications, as well as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration industries worldwide.