AustralianSuper Pty Ltd Grows Position in The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC)

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd grew its stake in The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) by 137.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 506,587 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 293,459 shares during the quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd’s holdings in Kraft Heinz were worth $15,557,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of KHC. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Kraft Heinz during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $411,304,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in Kraft Heinz by 16.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 44,400,402 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,558,898,000 after purchasing an additional 6,366,732 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Kraft Heinz by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,150,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $669,821,000 after purchasing an additional 1,944,019 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in Kraft Heinz by 16.3% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,813,268 shares of the company’s stock valued at $269,906,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Kraft Heinz by 1,139.3% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,273,579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,112,000 after purchasing an additional 1,170,814 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Kraft Heinz from $32.00 to $28.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com downgraded Kraft Heinz from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. Citigroup downgraded Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $34.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Kraft Heinz from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $35.00 target price (down from $38.00) on shares of Kraft Heinz in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have given a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.86.

Kraft Heinz Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:KHC opened at $28.92 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $29.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.77. The Kraft Heinz Company has a 12-month low of $27.25 and a 12-month high of $38.96. The company has a market capitalization of $34.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.05, a PEG ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.47. 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 announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.06. Kraft Heinz had a return on equity of 7.46% and a net margin of 5.24%. Sell-side analysts expect that The Kraft Heinz Company will post 3 EPS for the current year.

Kraft Heinz Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.53%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Kraft Heinz’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 70.80%.

Kraft Heinz Profile

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.