First Eagle Investment Management LLC Purchases 66,400 Shares of H&E Equipment Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEES)

First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of H&E Equipment Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEES) by 32.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 269,493 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 66,400 shares during the quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC’s holdings in H&E Equipment Services were worth $13,194,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in H&E Equipment Services by 15.0% during the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 6,108 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $299,000 after acquiring an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank boosted its position in H&E Equipment Services by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 64,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,163,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of H&E Equipment Services in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,639,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of H&E Equipment Services in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,522,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of H&E Equipment Services by 1,238.8% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 689,911 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $33,778,000 after purchasing an additional 638,379 shares in the last quarter. 84.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on HEES shares. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $92.00 price target (up from $60.00) on shares of H&E Equipment Services in a research report on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com started coverage on H&E Equipment Services in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, H&E Equipment Services has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.33.

H&E Equipment Services Stock Performance

HEES stock opened at $94.01 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.44 billion, a PE ratio of 23.86 and a beta of 1.94. H&E Equipment Services, Inc. has a 12-month low of $40.93 and a 12-month high of $101.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.09. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $85.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.84.

H&E Equipment Services (NASDAQ:HEES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 21st. The industrial products company reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $384.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $372.50 million. H&E Equipment Services had a return on equity of 25.46% and a net margin of 9.47%. As a group, research analysts forecast that H&E Equipment Services, Inc. will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

H&E Equipment Services Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a $0.275 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.17%. H&E Equipment Services’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.64%.

About H&E Equipment Services

H&E Equipment Services, Inc engages in the provision of equipment services, which focus on heavy construction and industrial equipment. It operates through the following segments: Equipment Rentals, New Equipment Sales, Used Equipment Sales, Parts Sales, and Services. The Equipment Rentals segment focuses on renting construction and industrial equipment.