EP Wealth Advisors LLC Invests $208,000 in Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 478 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CAG. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Conagra Brands by 9,591.9% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 6,881,839 shares of the company’s stock worth $258,138,000 after acquiring an additional 6,810,833 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Conagra Brands in the 4th quarter worth $163,004,000. State Street Corp raised its position in Conagra Brands by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,556,766 shares of the company’s stock worth $790,801,000 after purchasing an additional 2,671,720 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Conagra Brands by 25.1% in the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 9,033,184 shares of the company’s stock worth $339,286,000 after purchasing an additional 1,810,053 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP raised its position in Conagra Brands by 352.9% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,135,469 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,643,000 after purchasing an additional 1,663,932 shares during the period. 84.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Conagra Brands Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE:CAG opened at $28.73 on Tuesday. Conagra Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $28.35 and a one year high of $41.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.26. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.23, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.55.

Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 13th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3 billion. Conagra Brands had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 15.19%. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Conagra Brands, Inc. will post 2.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Conagra Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 31st were paid a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.87%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 28th. This is an increase from Conagra Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. Conagra Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.59%.

Insider Transactions at Conagra Brands

In other news, COO Thomas M. Mcgough sold 75,522 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.07, for a total value of $2,497,512.54. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 157,125 shares in the company, valued at $5,196,123.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CAG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Conagra Brands from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 21st. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Conagra Brands from $44.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Monday, July 10th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Conagra Brands from $43.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Friday, July 14th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Conagra Brands from $38.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Friday, July 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of Conagra Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Conagra Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.62.

Conagra Brands Company Profile

Conagra Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer packaged goods food company primarily in the United States. The company operates through Grocery & Snacks, Refrigerated & Frozen, International, and Foodservice segments. The Grocery & Snacks segment primarily offers shelf stable food products through various retail channels.