Rentokil Initial plc (LON:RTO) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Rentokil Initial plc (LON:RTO) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is GBX 666.67 ($8.42).

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Rentokil Initial from GBX 575 ($7.27) to GBX 590 ($7.46) and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th.

Rentokil Initial Stock Down 0.2 %

LON RTO opened at GBX 471.70 ($5.96) on Friday. The firm has a market cap of £11.89 billion, a PE ratio of 3,930.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.54. Rentokil Initial has a one year low of GBX 387.80 ($4.90) and a one year high of GBX 663.80 ($8.39). The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is GBX 435.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is GBX 465.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 116.93, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.76.

Rentokil Initial Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of GBX 5.93 ($0.07) per share. This is an increase from Rentokil Initial’s previous dividend of $2.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a yield of 1.38%. Rentokil Initial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7,500.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Rentokil Initial news, insider Andy M. Ransom sold 464,245 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 489 ($6.18), for a total transaction of £2,270,158.05 ($2,868,896.82). Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Rentokil Initial Company Profile

Rentokil Initial plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides route-based services in North America, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and internationally. It offers a range of pest control services for rodents, and flying and crawling insects, as well as other forms of wildlife management for commercial customers.