Rentokil Initial plc (NYSE:RTO) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Rentokil Initial plc (NYSE:RTO) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, one has issued a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company.

RTO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Rentokil Initial in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Citigroup raised Rentokil Initial to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th.

Institutional Trading of Rentokil Initial

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. River Road Asset Management LLC grew its position in Rentokil Initial by 114.2% in the fourth quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 3,786,010 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,862,000 after acquiring an additional 2,018,866 shares during the period. Gates Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Rentokil Initial by 21.0% during the 4th quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,258,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $158,453,000 after purchasing an additional 1,084,845 shares during the last quarter. Snyder Capital Management L P acquired a new position in Rentokil Initial in the fourth quarter valued at about $24,297,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in Rentokil Initial by 3.8% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 16,990,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $423,573,000 after buying an additional 617,227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maverick Capital Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Rentokil Initial during the third quarter worth approximately $14,820,000. 9.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Rentokil Initial Stock Performance

Shares of RTO opened at $23.18 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.70 billion, a PE ratio of 15.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.95 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Rentokil Initial has a one year low of $20.60 and a one year high of $34.07. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $24.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.77.

Rentokil Initial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.3825 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a yield of 2.4%. Rentokil Initial’s dividend payout ratio is 43.71%.

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.