Dun & Bradstreet’s (DNB) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reissued their buy rating on shares of Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB) in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $17.00 target price on the business services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on DNB. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Dun & Bradstreet from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Dun & Bradstreet from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays raised their target price on Dun & Bradstreet from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Dun & Bradstreet from $10.40 to $11.80 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Dun & Bradstreet from $15.00 to $12.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.83.

Dun & Bradstreet Price Performance

NYSE:DNB opened at $12.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.30 billion, a P/E ratio of -150.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. Dun & Bradstreet has a 52 week low of $8.77 and a 52 week high of $12.75. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $11.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.61.

Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The business services provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27. Dun & Bradstreet had a negative net margin of 1.46% and a positive return on equity of 11.50%. The company had revenue of $609.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $605.64 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.23 earnings per share. Dun & Bradstreet’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Dun & Bradstreet will post 0.89 EPS for the current year.

Dun & Bradstreet Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. Dun & Bradstreet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -250.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Dun & Bradstreet

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Atria Investments Inc grew its stake in shares of Dun & Bradstreet by 10.8% during the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 49,030 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $564,000 after purchasing an additional 4,783 shares in the last quarter. Verity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Dun & Bradstreet during the 3rd quarter worth about $189,000. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Dun & Bradstreet by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 6,176,103 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $71,087,000 after acquiring an additional 130,888 shares in the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Dun & Bradstreet by 56.7% in the 3rd quarter. Innealta Capital LLC now owns 17,577 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $202,000 after acquiring an additional 6,363 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Dun & Bradstreet by 96.2% during the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 1,166,781 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $13,430,000 after acquiring an additional 572,079 shares in the last quarter. 86.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Dun & Bradstreet

Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides business-to-business data and analytics in North America and internationally. It offers finance and risk solutions, including D&B Finance Analytics, an online application that offers clients real time access to its information, comprehensive monitoring, and portfolio analysis; D&B Direct, an application programming interface (API) that delivers risk and financial data directly into enterprise applications for real-time credit decision-making; D&B Small Business, a suite of tools that allows SMBs to monitor and build their business credit file; D&B Enterprise Risk Assessment Manager, a solution for managing and automating credit decisioning and reporting; and D&B Risk Analytics, a subscription-based online application that offers clients real-time access to complete and up-to-date global information to mitigate supply chain risk, regulatory risk, and ESG assessment, as well as other related risks; Risk Guardian, a subscription-based online application that offers real-time access to Northern Europe information, monitoring, and portfolio analysis; and D&B Beneficial Ownership that offers risk intelligence on ultimate beneficial ownership.