Swedbank AB Purchases 25,259 Shares of Trimble Inc. $TRMB

Swedbank AB boosted its position in Trimble Inc. (NASDAQ:TRMB) by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 317,542 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 25,259 shares during the period. Swedbank AB’s holdings in Trimble were worth $25,927,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its position in shares of Trimble by 1.1% during the third quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 549,589 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $44,874,000 after purchasing an additional 6,065 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC grew its position in Trimble by 40.4% in the 3rd quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 12,076 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $986,000 after purchasing an additional 3,475 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its stake in Trimble by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 46,718 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,795,000 after purchasing an additional 1,806 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its stake in Trimble by 31.7% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,375 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $194,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Insight Partners LLC raised its holdings in Trimble by 5.3% during the third quarter. Capital Insight Partners LLC now owns 8,568 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $700,000 after buying an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.21% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Phillip Sawarynski sold 2,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.45, for a total transaction of $181,012.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 25,684 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,066,277.80. This trade represents a 8.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kaigham Gabriel sold 1,718 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.00, for a total transaction of $139,158.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 15,170 shares in the company, valued at $1,228,770. This trade represents a 10.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 27,084 shares of company stock worth $2,144,726 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TRMB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Trimble in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $100.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Trimble in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $94.00 price target on the stock. Berenberg Bank set a $95.00 price target on Trimble and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. KeyCorp raised Trimble from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $99.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $102.00 target price on shares of Trimble in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Trimble has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $96.67.

Trimble Stock Down 1.0%

Trimble stock opened at $79.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.00. The stock has a market cap of $18.96 billion, a PE ratio of 54.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.60. Trimble Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $52.91 and a fifty-two week high of $87.50. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.80.

Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $856.50 million for the quarter. Trimble had a return on equity of 10.73% and a net margin of 9.93%. Research analysts predict that Trimble Inc. will post 2.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Trimble declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Friday, December 5th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the scientific and technical instruments company to purchase up to 5.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Trimble Company Profile

Trimble Inc (NASDAQ: TRMB) is a technology company that develops hardware, software and services to improve the productivity and connectivity of customers across the construction, agriculture, geospatial, transportation and logistics, and natural resources sectors. The company’s offerings center on advanced positioning technologies — including GNSS/GPS receivers, inertial sensors and laser scanning — integrated with application-specific software and cloud services to enable precise measurement, modeling, machine control and workflow automation for field and office operations.

Trimble’s product portfolio spans surveying and geospatial instruments (total stations, mobile mapping and terrestrial laser scanners), construction solutions (machine control systems, site positioning and estimating), agriculture systems (auto-steer, guidance and application-control platforms), and fleet and transportation telematics.