The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) Shares Sold by National Pension Service

National Pension Service cut its holdings in shares of The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,788,235 shares of the company’s stock after selling 35,019 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in Kraft Heinz were worth $54,917,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in KHC. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Kraft Heinz in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $411,304,000. State Street Corp boosted 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 worth $1,558,898,000 after purchasing an additional 6,366,732 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted 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 worth $669,821,000 after purchasing an additional 1,944,019 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted 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 worth $269,906,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238,200 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted 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 worth $39,112,000 after purchasing an additional 1,170,814 shares during the period. 78.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Kraft Heinz from $35.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Kraft Heinz from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $39.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Kraft Heinz from $37.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Mizuho downgraded shares of Kraft Heinz from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.86.

Kraft Heinz Stock Up 0.1 %

Kraft Heinz stock opened at $30.65 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $36.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.47. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The Kraft Heinz Company has a 1-year low of $27.25 and a 1-year high of $38.96.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.06. Kraft Heinz had a net margin of 10.62% and a return on equity of 7.58%. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Kraft Heinz Company will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.22%. Kraft Heinz’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.80%.

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.