Allison Transmission (NYSE:ALSN) Initiates Share Repurchase Plan

Allison Transmission (NYSE:ALSN) declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, February 20th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the auto parts company to buy up to 57.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Allison Transmission from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Allison Transmission from $90.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Allison Transmission from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Allison Transmission from $103.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Allison Transmission from $120.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Allison Transmission currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $100.75.

Allison Transmission Stock Down 1.6 %

ALSN stock opened at $100.76 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.13 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a current ratio of 3.04. Allison Transmission has a one year low of $71.35 and a one year high of $122.53. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $111.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $104.48.

Allison Transmission (NYSE:ALSN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The auto parts company reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.11. Allison Transmission had a net margin of 22.67% and a return on equity of 47.95%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Allison Transmission will post 9.06 EPS for the current year.

Allison Transmission Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This is a boost from Allison Transmission’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.07%. Allison Transmission’s payout ratio is currently 12.03%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David S. Graziosi sold 1,723 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.26, for a total transaction of $207,207.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 168,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,303,856.58. This represents a 1.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP John Coll sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.40, for a total transaction of $216,800.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,420 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $695,928. This trade represents a 23.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,639 shares of company stock valued at $2,448,077 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

About Allison Transmission

Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and medium- and heavy-tactical U.S. defense vehicles, and electrified propulsion systems worldwide. It provides commercial-duty on-highway, off-highway and defense fully automatic transmissions, and electric hybrid and fully electric systems.