Rentokil Initial plc (LON:RTO) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Rentokil Initial plc (LON:RTO) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is GBX 666.67 ($8.42).

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Rentokil Initial from GBX 575 ($7.27) to GBX 590 ($7.46) and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Andy M. Ransom sold 464,245 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 489 ($6.18), for a total value of £2,270,158.05 ($2,868,896.82). Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Rentokil Initial Price Performance

Rentokil Initial stock opened at GBX 472.50 ($5.97) on Friday. The company has a market cap of £11.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3,937.50, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.54. The firm’s fifty day moving average is GBX 432.83 and its 200 day moving average is GBX 466.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 116.93. Rentokil Initial has a 52-week low of GBX 387.80 ($4.90) and a 52-week high of GBX 663.80 ($8.39).

Rentokil Initial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be paid a GBX 5.93 ($0.07) dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.38%. This is an increase from Rentokil Initial’s previous dividend of $2.75. Rentokil Initial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7,500.00%.

Rentokil Initial Company Profile

Rentokil Initial plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides route-based services in North America, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and internationally. It offers a range of pest control services for rodents, and flying and crawling insects, as well as other forms of wildlife management for commercial customers.