Howe & Rusling Inc. Decreases Position in Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC)

Howe & Rusling Inc. decreased its position in shares of Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,043 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 106 shares during the period. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Belden were worth $455,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BDC. FMR LLC lifted its position in Belden by 14.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,486,337 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $525,485,000 after acquiring an additional 576,768 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Belden by 6.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,574,784 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $184,532,000 after purchasing an additional 100,145 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Belden by 0.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 960,974 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $112,580,000 after purchasing an additional 5,727 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC boosted its position in shares of Belden by 10.6% during the third quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 708,092 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $82,939,000 after buying an additional 68,151 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Belden by 61.2% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 294,925 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $33,212,000 after buying an additional 111,952 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.75% of the company’s stock.

Belden Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Belden stock opened at $104.39 on Friday. Belden Inc. has a 1-year low of $80.90 and a 1-year high of $131.82. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $110.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $114.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.20 billion, a PE ratio of 21.70 and a beta of 1.02.

Belden (NYSE:BDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.24. Belden had a return on equity of 21.42% and a net margin of 8.06%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Belden Inc. will post 7.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Belden Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $0.05 dividend. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. Belden’s dividend payout ratio is 4.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Leah Tate sold 2,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.77, for a total value of $275,448.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 23,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,667,599.11. This represents a 9.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Gregory James Mccray sold 4,200 shares of Belden stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.21, for a total value of $441,882.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,199 shares in the company, valued at $441,776.79. This trade represents a 50.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,428 shares of company stock worth $2,589,774. Company insiders own 1.59% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BDC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Belden from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on Belden from $155.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Belden in a report on Monday, February 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Belden has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $130.25.

About Belden

Belden Inc designs, manufactures, and markets a portfolio of signal transmission solutions for mission critical applications in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates in two segments, Enterprise Solutions and Industrial Automation Solutions. The Enterprise Solutions segment offers copper cable and connectivity solutions, fiber cable and connectivity solutions, interconnect panels, racks and enclosures, and signal extension and matrix switching systems for use in applications, such as local area networks, data centers, access control, 5G, fiber to the home, and building automation.