Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. Acquires New Position in Rockwell Automation, Inc. $ROK

Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE:ROK) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 48,900 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,026,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Rockwell Automation by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,206,311 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,527,249,000 after purchasing an additional 114,469 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Rockwell Automation by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,996,130 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,943,844,000 after purchasing an additional 202,705 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Rockwell Automation by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,924,501 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,133,397,000 after purchasing an additional 17,855 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Rockwell Automation by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,921,840 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,136,801,000 after purchasing an additional 276,021 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Rockwell Automation by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,104,985 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $818,986,000 after purchasing an additional 24,719 shares in the last quarter. 75.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on ROK. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Rockwell Automation from $435.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 30th. HSBC boosted their price target on Rockwell Automation from $445.00 to $490.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Rockwell Automation from $470.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price target on Rockwell Automation from $495.00 to $515.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Rockwell Automation from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $451.75.

Rockwell Automation Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of ROK opened at $458.66 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $51.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.57. Rockwell Automation, Inc. has a 1 year low of $305.44 and a 1 year high of $468.11. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $428.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $406.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The industrial products company reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.42. The business had revenue of $2.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. Rockwell Automation had a return on equity of 37.54% and a net margin of 12.36%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.45 EPS. Rockwell Automation has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.500-13.100 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Rockwell Automation, Inc. will post 13.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Rockwell Automation Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be issued a dividend of $1.38 per share. This represents a $5.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. Rockwell Automation’s dividend payout ratio is 57.38%.

Rockwell Automation declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, June 9th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the industrial products company to buy up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Rockwell Automation

In other news, VP Scott Genereux sold 550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $447.73, for a total transaction of $246,251.50. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 2,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,237,525.72. This represents a 16.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Christopher Nardecchia sold 2,538 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $446.43, for a total value of $1,133,039.34. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 14,232 shares in the company, valued at $6,353,591.76. The trade was a 15.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,308 shares of company stock worth $5,339,812. Company insiders own 0.76% of the company’s stock.

Rockwell Automation Profile

Rockwell Automation is a global industrial automation and digital transformation company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The firm designs, manufactures and supports control systems, industrial control hardware and software, and related services that help manufacturers and industrial operators automate processes, improve productivity and enable data-driven decision making. Rockwell traces its heritage to the Allen-Bradley and Rockwell automation businesses and positions itself as a provider of integrated automation solutions across discrete and process industries.

The company’s product portfolio includes programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs), variable frequency drives, sensors, safety components and other industrial control hardware, often marketed under the Allen-Bradley brand.