Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) Reaches New 1-Year Low Following Analyst Downgrade

The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC)’s share price reached a new 52-week low during trading on Tuesday after Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on the stock from $35.00 to $31.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Kraft Heinz traded as low as $29.97 and last traded at $30.13, with a volume of 800986 shares. The stock had previously closed at $30.05.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on KHC. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $35.00 price objective (down previously from $38.00) on shares of Kraft Heinz in a research report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 target price (down from $40.00) on shares of Kraft Heinz in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Kraft Heinz from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Kraft Heinz from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.91.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kraft Heinz

In other news, EVP Pedro F. P. Navio sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.45, for a total value of $1,505,250.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 168,195 shares in the company, valued at $5,626,122.75. This represents a 21.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.32% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Kraft Heinz during the third quarter worth $411,304,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 16.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 44,400,402 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,558,898,000 after acquiring an additional 6,366,732 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Kraft Heinz by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,150,328 shares of the company’s stock worth $669,821,000 after purchasing an additional 1,944,019 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Kraft Heinz by 47.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,536,214 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,379,000 after buying an additional 1,778,263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,813,268 shares of the company’s stock worth $269,906,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238,200 shares during the period. 78.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Kraft Heinz Trading Down 0.9 %

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $6.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.42 billion. Kraft Heinz had a return on equity of 7.46% and a net margin of 5.24%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.72 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that The Kraft Heinz Company will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Kraft Heinz Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.37%. Kraft Heinz’s payout ratio is 144.14%.

About Kraft Heinz

The Kraft Heinz Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets food and beverage products in North America and internationally. Its products include condiments and sauces, cheese and dairy products, meals, meats, refreshment beverages, coffee, and other grocery products under the Kraft, Oscar Mayer, Heinz, Philadelphia, Lunchables, Velveeta, Ore-Ida, Maxwell House, Kool-Aid, Jell-O, Heinz, ABC, Master, Quero, Kraft, Golden Circle, Wattie's, Pudliszki, and Plasmon brands.