Park Avenue Securities LLC Buys Shares of 3,951 Freshpet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FRPT)

Park Avenue Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freshpet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FRPTFree Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $585,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Freshpet during the second quarter worth about $8,902,000. Amalgamated Bank boosted its position in shares of Freshpet by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 2,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC acquired a new stake in Freshpet in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $251,000. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. raised its position in Freshpet by 3,670.0% in the second quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 377 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 367 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in Freshpet by 1,041.9% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 49,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,353,000 after purchasing an additional 44,800 shares during the period.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on FRPT. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Freshpet from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Freshpet from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Freshpet from $183.00 to $189.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Freshpet from $157.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 price target on shares of Freshpet in a report on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $163.36.

View Our Latest Research Report on Freshpet

Insider Buying and Selling at Freshpet

In other Freshpet news, President Scott James Morris sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.38, for a total transaction of $786,900.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 122,380 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,260,164.40. This trade represents a 3.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Thembeka Machaba sold 2,500 shares of Freshpet stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.85, for a total transaction of $384,625.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 12,500 shares of company stock worth $1,962,175. 3.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Freshpet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FRPT opened at $158.67 on Thursday. Freshpet, Inc. has a 12 month low of $84.02 and a 12 month high of $160.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 178.28 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 4.72 and a quick ratio of 3.91. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $150.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $139.98.

Freshpet (NASDAQ:FRPTGet Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $253.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $248.36 million. Freshpet had a return on equity of 3.67% and a net margin of 4.75%. The business’s revenue was up 26.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.15) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Freshpet, Inc. will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freshpet Company Profile

(Free Report)

Freshpet, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, distributes, and markets natural fresh meals and treats for dogs and cats in the United States, Canada, and Europe. It sells dog food, cat food, and dog treats under the Freshpet brand name; and Dognation and Dog Joy labels through various classes of retail, including grocery, mass, club, pet specialty, and natural, as well as online.

See Also

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Freshpet (NASDAQ:FRPT)

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