Rollins, Inc. $ROL Shares Purchased by Alliancebernstein L.P.

Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL) by 0.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 266,092 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 691 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned about 0.05% of Rollins worth $14,377,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ROL. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its stake in Rollins by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 66,050 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,061,000 after buying an additional 4,100 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Rollins by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 927,703 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $42,999,000 after acquiring an additional 25,567 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth purchased a new position in Rollins in the fourth quarter valued at about $341,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in Rollins by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 29,192 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,353,000 after purchasing an additional 2,574 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp grew its stake in Rollins by 19.6% during the 4th quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 12,382 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $574,000 after purchasing an additional 2,031 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.79% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ROL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $65.00 target price (up from $63.00) on shares of Rollins in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. Argus assumed coverage on shares of Rollins in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $68.00 target price for the company. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Rollins from $59.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Rollins from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $65.00 in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Rollins from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.40.

Rollins Trading Up 3.4%

Rollins stock opened at $58.29 on Friday. Rollins, Inc. has a 52-week low of $45.34 and a 52-week high of $59.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.72 and a beta of 0.69. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $56.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.65.

Rollins (NYSE:ROL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $999.53 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $988.77 million. Rollins had a return on equity of 36.96% and a net margin of 13.70%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Rollins, Inc. will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Rollins Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were given a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 11th. Rollins’s payout ratio is 65.35%.

Insider Activity at Rollins

In related news, Chairman John F. Wilson sold 30,000 shares of Rollins stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.04, for a total transaction of $1,741,200.00. Following the sale, the chairman directly owned 632,727 shares in the company, valued at $36,723,475.08. The trade was a 4.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 4.47% of the company’s stock.

Rollins Company Profile

Rollins, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides pest and wildlife control services to residential and commercial customers in the United States and internationally. The company offers pest control services to residential properties protecting from common pests, including rodents, insects, and wildlife.