Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $114.00.

ITRI has been the subject of several research reports. Roth Mkm upped their price target on shares of Itron from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Itron from $104.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Itron from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Stephens upped their price target on shares of Itron from $85.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Itron from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday.

Itron Price Performance

ITRI opened at $101.15 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 3.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.45. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $103.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $94.20. Itron has a 52-week low of $56.11 and a 52-week high of $113.07.

Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.25. Itron had a net margin of 7.98% and a return on equity of 16.42%. The firm had revenue of $609.07 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $599.25 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.65 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Itron will post 4.55 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Itron news, CFO Joan S. Hooper sold 501 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.87, for a total value of $54,543.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 72,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,930,852.89. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Joan S. Hooper sold 501 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.87, for a total transaction of $54,543.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 72,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,930,852.89. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Thomas Deitrich sold 873 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.87, for a total value of $95,043.51. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 206,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,444,965.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,775 shares of company stock worth $192,613 in the last three months. 1.45% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Itron by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,701,337 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $527,488,000 after acquiring an additional 45,909 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Itron by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,681,573 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $126,978,000 after buying an additional 51,874 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its position in Itron by 16.0% in the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 804,648 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $60,759,000 after buying an additional 110,849 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Itron by 2.2% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 542,943 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,233,000 after buying an additional 11,918 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Itron by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 518,157 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $39,126,000 after buying an additional 15,157 shares during the last quarter. 96.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Itron Company Profile

Itron, Inc, a technology, solutions, and service company, provides end-to-end solutions that help manage energy, water, and smart city operations worldwide. It operates in three segments: Device Solutions, Networked Solutions, and Outcomes. The Device Solutions segment offers hardware products that are used for measurement, control, or sensing, such as standard gas, electricity, water, and communicating meters, as well as heat and allocation products.