The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE:MSA). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Industrials company by 1.24% to 3.65 million shares with purchase of 44694.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 9.32% valued currently at $526.59 million. In addition, SSgA Funds Management, Inc. raised its holdings by 19043.0 to 2.09 million shares.
With over 0.15 million MSA Safety Incorporated (MSA) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $130.75 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $19.32 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 1.22% and its price on 01/24/23 lost nearly -0.15%. Currently, there are 39.17M common shares owned by the public and among those 36.73M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 3 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for MSA have a consensus price objective of $161.00. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $170.00 and a low of $152.00. The average price target is 18.79% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 13.98% over that period. But an upside of 23.09% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $161.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 74 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 41 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 142,111 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 33 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 148,461 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in MSA Safety Incorporated are Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF, and Vanguard Total Stock Market Index. Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP owns 3.8 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $548.53 million. The company bought an additional 41815.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 9.71% of the shares outstanding. iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF sold 217.0 shares to see its total holdings shrink to 1.14 million shares valued at over $163.91 million and representing 2.90% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 10166.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 1.13 million shares at a value of $163.25 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index now owns shares totaling to 2.89% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE: MSA) opened at $130.895, down -$0.05 from a prior closing price of $130.95. However, the script later moved the day high at 132.34, down -0.15%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -3.06% and 11.90% over the past three months. MSA shares are trading -9.32% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -5.25% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $108.75 and touched a high of $146.33 over the same period. MSA has an average intraday trading volume of 116.88K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -4.81%, -4.66%, and 3.30% respectively.
Institutional ownership of MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE: MSA) shares accounts for 84.80% of the company’s 39.17M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 55.58%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 9.24% and 28.38% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $5.02B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.94. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 74.89, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.75. The company has a PEG of 4.16 and a Quick Ratio of 1.50 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.72. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.32% over the week and 2.22% over the month.
Analysts forecast that MSA Safety Incorporated (MSA) will achieve an EPS of $1.67 for the current quarter, $1.21 for the next quarter and $5.93 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.63 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.7. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.67 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -82.90%, and 0.20% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 18.00% over the next five years, compared to -25.90% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 3 brokerage firm advisors rate MSA Safety Incorporated (MSA) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.30. Specifically, 1 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 2 of the 3 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the MSA, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Sidoti stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on December 07, 2021, with the firm’s price target at $183. Sidoti coverage for the MSA Safety Incorporated (MSA) stock in a research note released on March 24, 2020 offered a Buy rating with a price target of $113. Robert W. Baird on their part issued Neutral rating on October 03, 2017.
