B. Riley Upgrades MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA) to “Strong-Buy”

MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA) was upgraded by investment analysts at B. Riley to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Monday, Zacks.com reports.

MSA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. William Blair raised MSA Safety to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of MSA Safety from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Strong Buy” and an average price target of $207.50.

MSA Safety Price Performance

Shares of MSA Safety stock opened at $167.96 on Monday. MSA Safety has a 1-year low of $157.34 and a 1-year high of $200.60. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $173.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $180.67. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.27 and a beta of 0.99.

MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $432.68 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $449.95 million. MSA Safety had a net margin of 15.16% and a return on equity of 29.14%. The business’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.78 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that MSA Safety will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in MSA Safety by 30.3% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 26,606 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,151,000 after buying an additional 6,191 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in MSA Safety by 231.0% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 63,941 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,294,000 after acquiring an additional 44,625 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd raised its position in MSA Safety by 80.9% in the first quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 17,173 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,323,000 after purchasing an additional 7,681 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new position in MSA Safety during the first quarter worth about $3,625,000. Finally, Comerica Bank boosted its holdings in MSA Safety by 23.7% during the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 25,203 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,879,000 after purchasing an additional 4,823 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About MSA Safety

MSA Safety Incorporated develops, manufactures, and supplies safety products and technology solutions that protect people and facility infrastructures in the fire service, energy, utility, construction, and industrial manufacturing applications, as well as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration industries worldwide.