Wall Street Zen Upgrades Heico (NYSE:HEI) to “Buy”

Heico (NYSE:HEI) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on HEI. Susquehanna assumed coverage on Heico in a report on Friday, January 23rd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $385.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Heico in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $375.00 price target (up from $355.00) on shares of Heico in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Heico and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Heico from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $364.43.

Heico Trading Up 1.9%

NYSE HEI opened at $319.03 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Heico has a 52 week low of $229.07 and a 52 week high of $361.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.46 billion, a PE ratio of 63.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $337.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $322.90.

Heico (NYSE:HEI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The aerospace company reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.17 billion. Heico had a net margin of 15.38% and a return on equity of 16.93%. The company’s revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Heico will post 4.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HEI. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Heico by 45.7% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 769,704 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $248,476,000 after buying an additional 241,559 shares during the last quarter. Munro Partners acquired a new position in Heico in the 2nd quarter valued at about $59,720,000. CI Investments Inc. raised its stake in Heico by 40.0% during the 4th quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 164,036 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $53,080,000 after acquiring an additional 46,846 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Heico by 263.2% during the 3rd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 60,469 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $19,521,000 after acquiring an additional 43,821 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Heico by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 326,386 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $105,615,000 after purchasing an additional 35,288 shares during the last quarter. 27.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Heico

HEICO Corporation is an aerospace, defense and electronics company that designs, manufactures, and sells a range of products and provides repair and aftermarket services. Headquartered in Hollywood, Florida, HEICO supplies replacement components, repair services and engineered systems for commercial and business aviation, military and space markets as well as for selected industrial and medical customers. The company’s offerings are focused on sustaining and improving the reliability and availability of complex equipment across its end markets.

HEICO operates through two principal business areas.