Wedbush Securities Inc. Invests $221,000 in Acushnet Holdings Corp. (NYSE:GOLF)

Wedbush Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acushnet Holdings Corp. (NYSE:GOLF) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 3,103 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $221,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOLF. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acushnet by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,013,857 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,632,000 after purchasing an additional 63,294 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new stake in Acushnet in the third quarter valued at about $508,000. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in Acushnet by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 102,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,260,000 after buying an additional 4,256 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc grew its position in shares of Acushnet by 35.0% in the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 31,890 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,267,000 after acquiring an additional 8,268 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Acushnet by 361.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 48,563 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,096,000 after acquiring an additional 38,041 shares during the last quarter. 53.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Acushnet

In other news, insider Steven Francis Pelisek sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.86, for a total value of $1,417,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 96,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,802,985.16. This represents a 17.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 54.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on Acushnet from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Acushnet from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $69.00 to $64.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Compass Point raised shares of Acushnet from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $77.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Acushnet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.80.

Acushnet Stock Down 1.8 %

GOLF stock opened at $60.89 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.65 billion, a PE ratio of 20.71 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $65.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $67.47. Acushnet Holdings Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $55.31 and a fifty-two week high of $76.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Acushnet (NYSE:GOLF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.33) by $0.31. The company had revenue of $445.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $454.83 million. Acushnet had a net margin of 7.78% and a return on equity of 21.45%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Acushnet Holdings Corp. will post 3.06 EPS for the current year.

Acushnet Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $0.235 per share. This represents a $0.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Acushnet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Acushnet’s payout ratio is 28.23%.

About Acushnet

Acushnet Holdings Corp. designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes golf products in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, Korea, and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Titleist Golf Balls, Titleist Golf Clubs, Titleist Golf Gear, and FootJoy Golf Wear.