Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI – Get Rating) in a report published on Thursday. The brokerage issued a buy rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Raymond James raised their price objective on Itron from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 28th. TheStreet raised Itron from a d+ rating to a c- rating in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Itron from a neutral rating to an underweight rating and reduced their price target for the company from $53.00 to $50.00 in a report on Friday, March 3rd. Cowen raised their price target on Itron from $55.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. Finally, Stephens restated an equal weight rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of Itron in a report on Tuesday, February 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Itron has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $57.22.

Itron Trading Down 3.4 %

Itron stock traded down $1.82 on Thursday, hitting $50.95. 1,051,573 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 296,578. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.66. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.47. Itron has a 1 year low of $39.38 and a 1 year high of $60.61.

Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 27th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.62. The business had revenue of $467.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $433.90 million. Itron had a positive return on equity of 4.41% and a negative net margin of 0.54%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Itron will post 0.93 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Donald L. Reeves III sold 2,000 shares of Itron stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.45, for a total value of $102,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $471,179.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, SVP Donald L. Reeves III sold 2,000 shares of Itron stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.45, for a total value of $102,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $471,179.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Joan S. Hooper sold 792 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.82, for a total value of $42,625.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 63,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,428,334. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,365 shares of company stock worth $675,353. 1.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Itron

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Itron by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,080,619 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $213,945,000 after purchasing an additional 106,342 shares during the period. Amundi grew its stake in shares of Itron by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,600,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $133,785,000 after purchasing an additional 401,394 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its position in shares of Itron by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,420,328 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $71,940,000 after buying an additional 16,241 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Itron by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,260,616 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $53,087,000 after buying an additional 37,711 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Itron by 12.5% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 991,633 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $52,239,000 after buying an additional 110,107 shares in the last quarter. 96.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Itron Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Itron, Inc is a technology and services company, which engages in the provision of solutions that measure, manage, and analyze energy and water use. It operates through the following segments: Device Solutions, Networked Solutions, and Outcomes. The Device Solutions segment includes hardware products used for measurement, control, or sensing that do not have communications capability embedded for use with its broader Itron systems.