Eastern Bank Buys Shares of 260,028 Mondelez International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLZ)

Eastern Bank bought a new stake in Mondelez International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLZ) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 260,028 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,156,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Mondelez International by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,765,846 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,153,609,000 after buying an additional 6,696,897 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Mondelez International by 40.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 16,726,114 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,094,557,000 after buying an additional 4,794,746 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Mondelez International by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 32,497,024 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,274,792,000 after buying an additional 2,206,023 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its stake in Mondelez International by 6,311.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,750,847 shares of the company’s stock worth $114,575,000 after buying an additional 1,723,537 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Mondelez International by 231.4% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,804,722 shares of the company’s stock worth $118,101,000 after buying an additional 1,260,124 shares during the last quarter. 78.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MDLZ. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on Mondelez International from $90.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Citigroup increased their price target on Mondelez International from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Mondelez International from $79.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on Mondelez International from $78.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Mondelez International in a report on Monday, August 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $80.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $79.06.

Mondelez International Price Performance

MDLZ stock traded up $0.71 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $71.14. 1,588,273 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,760,592. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.64. Mondelez International, Inc. has a 1-year low of $63.66 and a 1-year high of $77.20. The company has a market cap of $95.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.30, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

Mondelez International (NASDAQ:MDLZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.07. Mondelez International had a return on equity of 16.69% and a net margin of 10.97%. The business had revenue of $8.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Mondelez International, Inc. will post 3.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Mondelez International Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This is a positive change from Mondelez International’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.64%. Mondelez International’s payout ratio is currently 59.68%.

About Mondelez International

Mondelez International, Inc, through its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and sells snack food and beverage products in the Latin America, North America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. It provides biscuits and baked snacks, including cookies, crackers, salted snacks, snack bars, and cakes and pastries; chocolates; and gums and candies, as well as various cheese and grocery, and powdered beverage products.