Bleakley Financial Group LLC Increases Position in The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) by 9.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,425 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,074 shares during the quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Kraft Heinz were worth $459,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Kraft Heinz by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,215,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,362,053,000 after buying an additional 417,115 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Kraft Heinz by 4.4% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,344,178 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,313,427,000 after purchasing an additional 1,397,795 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Kraft Heinz by 10.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 24,601,098 shares of the company’s stock worth $827,581,000 after purchasing an additional 2,369,080 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Kraft Heinz by 1,835.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 19,527,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $794,964,000 after purchasing an additional 18,518,584 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Kraft Heinz by 1.1% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,062,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $581,169,000 after purchasing an additional 161,170 shares during the period. 78.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on KHC shares. Citigroup started coverage on Kraft Heinz in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $43.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Kraft Heinz from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.57.

Kraft Heinz Stock Performance

Shares of Kraft Heinz stock opened at $35.94 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market cap of $43.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.67. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.28. The Kraft Heinz Company has a fifty-two week low of $30.68 and a fifty-two week high of $41.47.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $6.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.99 billion. Kraft Heinz had a net margin of 10.72% and a return on equity of 7.42%. Kraft Heinz’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.85 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that The Kraft Heinz Company will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kraft Heinz Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.45%. Kraft Heinz’s payout ratio is presently 69.26%.

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.