Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Co (NASDAQ:WTW) saw an upside of 0.30% to close Friday at $212.95 after adding $0.63 on the day. The 5-day average trading volume is 686,340 shares of the company’s common stock. It has gained $216.92 in the past week and touched a new high 3 times within the past 5 days. An average of 527,395 shares of the company has been traded in the last 20 days, and the 50-day average volume stands at 690,350.
WTW’s 1-month performance is 5.02% or $12.46 on its low of $200.61 reached on 08/23/23. The company’s shares have touched a 52-week low of $195.29 and high of $258.93, with the stock’s rally to the 52-week high happening on 02/09/23. YTD, WTW has lost -12.93% or -$31.63 and has reached a new high 5 times. However, the current price is down -17.76% from the 52-week high price.
Insider Transactions
WTW stock investors last saw insider trading activity on Jul 03.Gebauer Julie Jarecke (Head of Health, Wealth &Career) most recently sold 2,000 shares at $231.69 per share on Jul 03. This transaction cost the insider $463,384. Head of Europe, Pullum Anne, sold 5,000 shares at a price of $224.45 on Jun 07. Then, on Jun 01, Head of Health, Wealth &Career Gebauer Julie Jarecke sold 2,500 shares at a price of $218.35 per share. This transaction amounted to $545,868.
Valuation Metrics
WTW stock has a beta of 0.75. Moving on to other valuation ratios, the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 2.46 while the price-to-book (PB) in the most recent quarter is 2.28, with the price to cash flow ratio at 29.88.
As well, the company’s long term debt to equity for the quarter ending June 29 was 0.53, while the total debt to equity was 0.63. In terms of profitability, the gross margin trailing 12 months is 77.53%. The firm’s gross profit as reported stood at $1.26 billion against revenue of $8.87 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the quarterly period ending June 29 this year, Net income and sales went down compared to those figures reported in the previous quarter. Net income shrunk -15.96% to $94.0 million, while revenue of $203.0 million was -115.96% off the previous quarter. Analysts expected WTW to announce $2.33 per share in earnings in its latest quarter, but it posted $2.05, representing a -12.00% surprise. EBITDA for the quarter stood at more than $276.0 million. Shareholders hold equity totaling $104.82 million.
Let’s look briefly at Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Co (WTW) price momentum from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index as at close on 22 September was 67.30% to suggest the stock is trending Neutral, with historical volatility in this time period at 14.76%.
The stock’s 5-day moving average is $212.35, reflecting a +3.84% or $7.88 change from its current price. WTW is currently trading +3.80% above its 20-day SMA, -8.70% above its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is away from the SMA50 by -8.08% and SMA200 by-13.67%.
Stochastic %K and %D was 77.53% and 83.90% and the average true range (ATR) pointed at 3.45. The RSI (14) points at 60.59%, while the 14-day stochastic is at 75.02% with the period’s ATR at 3.48. The stock’s 9-day MACD Oscillator is pointing at 4.59 and 6.44 on the 14-day charts.
Analyst Ratings
In the most recent analyst report for Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Co (NASDAQ: WTW), BMO Capital Markets downgraded it to an Underperform rating. They previously had a Market perform rating on the stock. Analysts offering their rating for WTW stock have a consensus rating for the stock as Hold. Currently, 2 brokerage advisors rate WTW as a “sell,”, while 10 advise that investors “Hold.” 1 analysts have rated the stock as underweight. 2 rates the stock as overweight while 5 have offered a “buy” rating.
What is WTW’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts have a consensus price target ranging from a low of $205.00 and a high of $265.00, with their median price target at $236.00. Looking at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts is for Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Co (WTW) stock is $238.94.
