Mission Produce (NASDAQ:AVO) Chairman Stephen Barnard Sells 35,562 Shares

Mission Produce, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVO) Chairman Stephen Barnard sold 35,562 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.55, for a total value of $446,303.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Mission Produce Stock Performance

AVO stock traded down $0.10 during trading on Monday, hitting $12.80. 1,192,587 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,029,023. Mission Produce, Inc. has a 1 year low of $10.07 and a 1 year high of $15.53. The company has a market cap of $1.12 billion, a PE ratio of 426.81 and a beta of 0.48. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $12.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

Mission Produce (NASDAQ:AVO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 8th. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $450.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $367.57 million. Mission Produce had a return on equity of 5.91% and a net margin of 0.12%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Mission Produce, Inc. will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mission Produce declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, June 8th that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 13.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AVO. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Mission Produce by 36.9% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,775,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,300,000 after buying an additional 1,286,263 shares in the last quarter. Fourth Sail Capital LP raised its position in Mission Produce by 258.5% during the second quarter. Fourth Sail Capital LP now owns 3,976,272 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,880,000 after acquiring an additional 2,867,072 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Mission Produce by 12.4% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,024,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,614,000 after acquiring an additional 334,629 shares during the period. Rubric Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Mission Produce during the first quarter valued at $23,756,000. Finally, Platform Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Mission Produce during the fourth quarter valued at $12,130,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.57% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AVO has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group set a $16.00 price target on shares of Mission Produce in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Mission Produce from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 12th. Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 target price on shares of Mission Produce in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Mission Produce from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.50.

About Mission Produce

Mission Produce, Inc (NASDAQ:AVO) is an avocado sourcing, production, distribution and marketing company headquartered in Oxnard, California. The company supplies fresh Hass avocados and other avocado varieties to retail, foodservice and wholesale customers, managing activities across the supply chain from growing and procurement to ripening, packing and delivery.

Mission Produce works with avocado growers and operates or manages production and distribution activities in several major growing regions, including Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Brazil and the United States.