McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Friday morning.

MGRC has been the topic of several other reports. CJS Securities started coverage on shares of McGrath RentCorp in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $152.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of McGrath RentCorp from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd.

McGrath RentCorp Trading Up 3.6 %

Shares of MGRC stock opened at $113.56 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.79 billion, a PE ratio of 12.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $119.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $114.56. McGrath RentCorp has a twelve month low of $95.50 and a twelve month high of $129.93.

McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The financial services provider reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $243.75 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $246.93 million. McGrath RentCorp had a net margin of 25.44% and a return on equity of 13.68%. Equities research analysts predict that McGrath RentCorp will post 6.18 EPS for the current year.

McGrath RentCorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.485 per share. This represents a $1.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. This is a boost from McGrath RentCorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 16th. McGrath RentCorp’s dividend payout ratio is 20.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other McGrath RentCorp news, Director Kimberly Ann Box sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.69, for a total transaction of $124,690.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $935,175. This represents a 11.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of McGrath RentCorp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MGRC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of McGrath RentCorp by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,726,133 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $304,836,000 after acquiring an additional 29,467 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of McGrath RentCorp by 52.1% in the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,896,943 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $212,116,000 after acquiring an additional 649,567 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of McGrath RentCorp by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,199,169 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $134,091,000 after acquiring an additional 87,329 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of McGrath RentCorp by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 917,631 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $102,610,000 after acquiring an additional 97,290 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of McGrath RentCorp by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 788,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $88,198,000 after acquiring an additional 50,674 shares during the period. 92.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About McGrath RentCorp

McGrath RentCorp operates as a business to business rental company in the United States and internationally. It rents and sells relocatable modular buildings, portable storage containers, and electronic test equipment. The company operates through four segments: Mobile Modular, Portable Storage, TRS-RenTelco, and Enviroplex.