Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,200,000 shares, an increase of 5.3% from the August 15th total of 1,140,000 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 366,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Eugene A. Hall sold 34,060 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $505.40, for a total transaction of $17,213,924.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,143,401 shares in the company, valued at $577,874,865.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Gartner news, CEO Eugene A. Hall sold 34,060 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $505.40, for a total value of $17,213,924.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,143,401 shares in the company, valued at $577,874,865.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Claire Herkes sold 478 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $506.01, for a total transaction of $241,872.78. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $963,949.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 65,164 shares of company stock valued at $32,601,014. Company insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gartner

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of IT. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Gartner during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. DSM Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Gartner during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division purchased a new stake in shares of Gartner in the first quarter valued at $36,000. Crewe Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Gartner by 223.3% in the 2nd quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 97 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Finally, J.Safra Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in shares of Gartner by 58.7% during the 1st quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 146 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Gartner from $510.00 to $580.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Gartner to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Gartner from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Gartner from $525.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Gartner from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $521.00.

Gartner Price Performance

Shares of Gartner stock traded down $0.86 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $506.49. 282,973 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 386,651. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.80, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The company has a market capitalization of $39.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.48, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.32. Gartner has a 52-week low of $323.61 and a 52-week high of $515.09. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $479.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $461.18.

Gartner (NYSE:IT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The information technology services provider reported $3.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.02 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $1.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. Gartner had a return on equity of 142.05% and a net margin of 13.67%. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.85 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Gartner will post 11.59 EPS for the current year.

About Gartner

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.