Rentokil Initial plc (LON:RTO) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Rentokil Initial plc (LON:RTO) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the five ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is GBX 636.80 ($7.87).

A number of research analysts have recently commented on RTO shares. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a GBX 600 ($7.41) price objective on shares of Rentokil Initial in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Rentokil Initial from GBX 575 ($7.10) to GBX 590 ($7.29) and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “buy” rating and set a GBX 500 ($6.18) target price on shares of Rentokil Initial in a research report on Tuesday.

Insider Buying and Selling at Rentokil Initial

In other Rentokil Initial news, insider Andy M. Ransom sold 464,245 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 489 ($6.04), for a total value of £2,270,158.05 ($2,804,048.97). 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Rentokil Initial Trading Down 0.4 %

LON:RTO traded down GBX 1.50 ($0.02) on Tuesday, reaching GBX 425 ($5.25). The stock had a trading volume of 8,679,728 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,569,469. The company has a market cap of £10.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2,833.33, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 116.93, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.76. The firm’s fifty day moving average is GBX 450.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is GBX 447.22. Rentokil Initial has a 12-month low of GBX 387.80 ($4.79) and a 12-month high of GBX 663.80 ($8.20).

Rentokil Initial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 4th will be issued a GBX 5.93 ($0.07) dividend. This represents a yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This is an increase from Rentokil Initial’s previous dividend of $2.75. Rentokil Initial’s payout ratio is currently 6,000.00%.

About Rentokil Initial

Rentokil Initial plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides route-based services in North America, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and internationally. It offers a range of pest control services for rodents, and flying and crawling insects, as well as other forms of wildlife management for commercial customers.