Short Interest in Gates Industrial Corp PLC (NYSE:GTES) Increases By 7.3%

Gates Industrial Corp PLC (NYSE:GTES - Get Free Report) saw a large increase in short interest in 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 stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 3,000,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Blackstone Inc. sold 24,276,100 shares of the firm'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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 107,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,292,180.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Wilson S. Neely bought 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $13.24 per share, for a total transaction of $132,400.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 56,664 shares in the company, valued at approximately $750,231.36. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Blackstone Inc. sold 24,276,100 shares of the firm's 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 transaction, the insider now owns 107,324 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,292,180.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders acquired 1,030,492 shares of company stock worth $12,582,402. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Gates Industrial by 45.9% during the 1st 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 during the 1st quarter worth about $28,390,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in Gates Industrial during the 4th quarter worth about $164,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Gates Industrial by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,329,789 shares of the company's stock worth $205,726,000 after purchasing an additional 1,519,041 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Gates Industrial by 71.4% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,185,811 shares of the company's stock worth $15,914,000 after purchasing an additional 493,963 shares during the last quarter. 98.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GTES shares. TheStreet raised shares of Gates Industrial from a "c+" rating to a "b-" rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Gates Industrial from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $20.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Gates Industrial from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Gates Industrial in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. They set a "buy" rating and a $21.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp raised shares of Gates Industrial from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $18.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Gates Industrial presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $18.00.

Gates Industrial Stock Performance

GTES traded down $0.07 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $17.27. 1,681,616 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,883,386. Gates Industrial has a fifty-two week low of $10.68 and a fifty-two week high of $17.86. The company has a quick ratio of 2.25, a current ratio of 3.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $15.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.55. The company has a market capitalization of $4.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.32 and a beta of 1.57.

Gates Industrial (NYSE:GTES - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $863.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $892.40 million. Gates Industrial had a net margin of 6.52% and a return on equity of 10.14%. As a group, analysts predict that Gates Industrial will post 1.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.