First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Buys New Stake in Conagra Brands $CAG

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. bought a new stake in shares of Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 482,840 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,590,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Conagra Brands by 2.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,202,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $536,363,000 after acquiring an additional 588,435 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Conagra Brands by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 19,323,789 shares of the company’s stock worth $303,771,000 after purchasing an additional 1,701,624 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Conagra Brands by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,667,780 shares of the company’s stock worth $305,829,000 after purchasing an additional 2,079,903 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Conagra Brands by 18.5% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 15,229,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $263,624,000 after purchasing an additional 2,376,823 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Conagra Brands by 19.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 12,130,671 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,113,000 after purchasing an additional 1,984,873 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on CAG. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Conagra Brands from $15.00 to $13.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 5th. Evercore lowered their price target on shares of Conagra Brands from $18.00 to $13.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Conagra Brands from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. BTIG Research started coverage on shares of Conagra Brands in a research note on Monday, April 13th. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Conagra Brands from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $14.07.

Conagra Brands Stock Performance

Conagra Brands stock opened at $14.85 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $13.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $15.66. Conagra Brands has a 52 week low of $12.53 and a 52 week high of $20.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.71 and a beta of -0.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.89 billion. Conagra Brands had a positive return on equity of 10.44% and a negative net margin of 16.99%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. Conagra Brands has set its FY 2027 guidance at 1.400-1.500 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Conagra Brands will post 1.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Conagra Brands Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.175 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 30th. Conagra Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently -35.00%.

About Conagra Brands

Conagra Brands, Inc is a leading packaged foods company based in Chicago, Illinois, with a broad portfolio of shelf-stable, frozen and refrigerated foods marketed under familiar brands. The company develops, produces and distributes a wide range of consumer food products, serving both retail grocery and foodservice channels. Conagra’s product lineup includes frozen entrees, snacks, condiments, baking goods and desserts, providing convenient meal solutions for consumers across North America and select international markets.

Among its well-known brands are Birds Eye, Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, Marie Callender’s and Banquet in the frozen foods category, as well as Hunt’s sauces, Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn, Slim Jim meat snacks and Reddi-wip toppings.