StockNews.com Begins Coverage on Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE:RBA)

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE:RBA – Get Rating) (TSE:RBA) in a research report released on Thursday. The firm issued a hold rating on the business services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 24th. Scotiabank upgraded Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers from a sector perform rating to an outperform rating and increased their price target for the company from $59.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Monday, December 5th. National Bankshares increased their price target on Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $61.67.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE RBA opened at $52.84 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.91. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers has a 1-year low of $48.72 and a 1-year high of $72.73. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $59.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.08.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE:RBA – Get Rating) (TSE:RBA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.10. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers had a return on equity of 25.58% and a net margin of 18.44%. The firm had revenue of $443.86 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $430.21 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.27 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers will post 2.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a — dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 17th will be issued a $1.08 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 21st. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.76%.

Institutional Trading of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of RBA. Luxor Capital Group LP grew its holdings in Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers by 95.9% during the fourth quarter. Luxor Capital Group LP now owns 4,209,222 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $243,419,000 after acquiring an additional 2,060,511 shares during the period. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers during the fourth quarter worth about $94,064,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers during the fourth quarter worth about $79,586,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers by 1,001.5% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,335,301 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $77,124,000 after acquiring an additional 1,214,073 shares during the period. Finally, ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers by 25.7% during the fourth quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC now owns 4,307,036 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $249,076,000 after acquiring an additional 880,158 shares during the period. 81.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers

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Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Inc is an industrial auctioneer, which engages in the sale of equipment to on-site and online bidders. It operates through the following segments: Auctions and Marketplaces, Ritchie Bros. Financial Services and Mascus. The Auctions and Marketplaces segment consists of live on site auctions, online auctions and marketplaces, and brokerage service.