Gartner (NYSE:IT) Raised to “Overweight” at Barclays

Gartner (NYSE:IT) was upgraded by stock analysts at Barclays from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $600.00 target price on the information technology services provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $525.00. Barclays‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 21.34% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on IT. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Gartner from $460.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Gartner from $565.00 to $590.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Gartner from $529.00 to $531.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Gartner from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Gartner from $560.00 to $564.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Gartner currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $553.13.

Gartner Stock Performance

NYSE:IT opened at $494.49 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.33. Gartner has a 1 year low of $411.15 and a 1 year high of $559.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $510.21 and a 200-day moving average of $495.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.31.

Gartner (NYSE:IT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The information technology services provider reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by $0.05. Gartner had a return on equity of 118.27% and a net margin of 17.33%. The company had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Gartner will post 11.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Gartner news, EVP Claire Herkes sold 411 shares of Gartner stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $521.24, for a total value of $214,229.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $778,732.56. The trade was a 21.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director James C. Smith sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $535.76, for a total transaction of $5,357,600.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 554,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $296,957,838.24. This represents a 1.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 35,583 shares of company stock valued at $19,241,974 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Gartner

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IT. Choreo LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Gartner in the 2nd quarter valued at about $722,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Gartner by 70.0% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 5,144 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,607,000 after buying an additional 2,118 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Gartner by 9.0% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 59,393 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $26,671,000 after buying an additional 4,887 shares during the last quarter. ING Groep NV lifted its stake in Gartner by 38.4% in the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 10,306 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,223,000 after acquiring an additional 2,860 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in Gartner by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 166,787 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $84,520,000 after acquiring an additional 13,205 shares during the last quarter. 91.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Gartner Company Profile

Gartner, Inc operates as a research and advisory company in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Research, Conferences, and Consulting. The Research segment delivers its research primarily through a subscription service that include on-demand access to published research content, data and benchmarks, and direct access to a network of research experts.