Cullen Investment Group LTD. Acquires New Stake in The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. acquired a new stake in shares of The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 6,081 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $225,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Kraft Heinz by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,215,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,362,053,000 after purchasing an additional 417,115 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Kraft Heinz by 4.4% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 24,601,098 shares of the company’s stock worth $827,581,000 after buying an additional 2,369,080 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 1,835.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 19,527,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $794,964,000 after buying an additional 18,518,584 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,062,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $581,169,000 after buying an additional 161,170 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on KHC. Citigroup began coverage on Kraft Heinz in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America raised their price target on Kraft Heinz from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Kraft Heinz from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.71.

Kraft Heinz Price Performance

Kraft Heinz stock opened at $36.59 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $35.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.48 billion, a PE ratio of 15.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The Kraft Heinz Company has a 12-month low of $30.68 and a 12-month high of $41.47.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. The firm 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%. The business’s revenue was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.85 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Kraft Heinz Company will post 3.02 EPS for the current year.

Kraft Heinz Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. 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 4.37%. Kraft Heinz’s payout ratio is 69.26%.

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.