Dun & Bradstreet’s (DNB) Hold Rating Reiterated at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group reissued their hold rating on shares of Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB) in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a $9.15 price target on the business services provider’s stock, down from their prior price target of $11.00.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $14.00 price target on shares of Dun & Bradstreet in a research report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Dun & Bradstreet from $12.80 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $12.00 price objective on shares of Dun & Bradstreet in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Dun & Bradstreet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.86.

Dun & Bradstreet Price Performance

DNB opened at $8.94 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $11.22. Dun & Bradstreet has a 52-week low of $7.78 and a 52-week high of $12.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.94 billion, a P/E ratio of -148.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.65.

Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.32 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $631.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $658.04 million. Dun & Bradstreet had a positive return on equity of 11.29% and a negative net margin of 1.20%. As a group, analysts predict that Dun & Bradstreet will post 0.96 EPS for the current year.

Dun & Bradstreet Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th were paid a $0.05 dividend. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 6th. Dun & Bradstreet’s payout ratio is currently -333.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Dun & Bradstreet news, Chairman William P. Foley II sold 2,500,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.99, for a total transaction of $22,475,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 8,109,644 shares in the company, valued at $72,905,699.56. This represents a 23.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 10.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Dun & Bradstreet

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Dun & Bradstreet by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 5,158 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 1,126 shares during the period. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Dun & Bradstreet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $96,000. Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new position in Dun & Bradstreet during the 3rd quarter valued at $117,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in Dun & Bradstreet in the 4th quarter valued at $127,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in Dun & Bradstreet in the 3rd quarter worth about $120,000. 86.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Dun & Bradstreet

Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc engages in providing business decisioning data and analytics solutions. The firm is involved in providing information with its solutions to support its clients with critical business operations. It offers end-to-end solutions to clients in the small business, finance, sales & marketing, third party risk & compliance, and public sectors.