Aurora Investment Counsel Raises Stock Position in The Middleby Corporation $MIDD

Aurora Investment Counsel boosted its position in shares of The Middleby Corporation (NASDAQ:MIDD) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,295 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel’s holdings in Middleby were worth $1,770,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Middleby by 59.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,029,484 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $460,422,000 after acquiring an additional 1,133,931 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC grew its stake in Middleby by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,319,757 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $200,577,000 after buying an additional 7,791 shares in the last quarter. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Middleby by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Clarkston Capital Partners LLC now owns 688,560 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $104,647,000 after buying an additional 10,310 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its stake in Middleby by 32.5% in the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 578,496 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $87,920,000 after buying an additional 141,769 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Middleby by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 503,045 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $76,453,000 after buying an additional 10,780 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Middleby from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Wolfe Research set a $163.00 price target on shares of Middleby and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Middleby from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 20th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $180.00 price target (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Middleby in a research note on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Middleby in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $165.00.

Middleby Price Performance

MIDD opened at $134.49 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 2.57 and a quick ratio of 1.56. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $135.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.10. The firm has a market cap of $6.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.11 and a beta of 1.52. The Middleby Corporation has a 1 year low of $118.09 and a 1 year high of $182.73.

Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The industrial products company reported $2.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.15. Middleby had a net margin of 11.06% and a return on equity of 14.14%. The business had revenue of $977.86 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $979.59 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.39 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that The Middleby Corporation will post 9.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Middleby Profile

The Middleby Corporation designs, markets, manufactures, distributes, and services foodservice, food processing, and residential kitchen equipment worldwide. Its Commercial Foodservice Equipment Group segment offers conveyor, combi, convection, baking, proofing, deck, speed cooking, and hydrovection ovens; ranges, fryers, and rethermalizers; steam cooking, food warming, catering, induction cooking, and countertop cooking equipment; heated cabinets, charbroilers, ventless cooking systems, kitchen ventilation, toasters, griddles, charcoal grills, professional mixers, stainless steel fabrication, custom millwork, professional refrigerators, blast chillers, cold rooms, ice machines, and freezers; soft serve ice cream, coffee and beverage dispensing, home and professional craft brewing equipment; and fry dispensers, bottle filling and canning equipment, IoT solutions, and controls development and manufacturing.