Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Increases Position in Cummins Inc. (NYSE:CMI)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in Cummins Inc. (NYSE:CMI) by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,883 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 321 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cummins were worth $1,889,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Cummins during the third quarter worth $25,000. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated bought a new position in shares of Cummins during the third quarter worth $28,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates bought a new position in shares of Cummins during the third quarter worth $29,000. Tyler Stone Wealth Management bought a new position in Cummins during the second quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new position in Cummins during the first quarter valued at $32,000. 83.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on CMI. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Cummins from $260.00 to $272.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Cummins in a research report on Monday, January 8th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $278.00 price objective for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Cummins from $270.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Cummins from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of Cummins from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $243.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $279.70.

Cummins Stock Down 1.3 %

NYSE CMI traded down $3.86 during trading on Friday, reaching $287.56. 2,566,951 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,111,290. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $39.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $280.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $248.53. Cummins Inc. has a 12-month low of $203.18 and a 12-month high of $304.24.

Cummins (NYSE:CMI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $4.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.41 by ($0.27). Cummins had a net margin of 2.16% and a return on equity of 25.68%. The business had revenue of $8.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.10 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.52 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cummins Inc. will post 18.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cummins Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a $1.68 dividend. This represents a $6.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. Cummins’s dividend payout ratio is currently 129.73%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Tony Satterthwaite sold 37,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.05, for a total value of $9,926,122.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 73,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,545,052.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, SVP Tony Satterthwaite sold 37,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.05, for a total value of $9,926,122.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 73,741 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,545,052.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Sharon R. Barner sold 11,000 shares of Cummins stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.16, for a total transaction of $2,883,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 17,874 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,685,847.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 51,289 shares of company stock worth $13,576,838. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Cummins Profile

Cummins Inc designs, manufactures, distributes, and services diesel and natural gas engines, electric and hybrid powertrains, and related components worldwide. It operates through five segments: Engine, Distribution, Components, Power Systems, and Accelera. The company offers diesel and natural gas-powered engines under the Cummins and other customer brands for the heavy and medium-duty truck, bus, recreational vehicle, light-duty automotive, construction, mining, marine, rail, oil and gas, defense, and agricultural markets; and offers parts and services, as well as remanufactured parts and engines.