Schroder Investment Management Group Buys 85,980 Shares of Sysco Co. (NYSE:SYY)

Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in shares of Sysco Co. (NYSE:SYY) by 70.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 207,823 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 85,980 shares during the quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group’s holdings in Sysco were worth $15,869,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SYY. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Sysco by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,519,424 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,703,775,000 after acquiring an additional 429,711 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Sysco by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,294,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,130,617,000 after purchasing an additional 2,721,449 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in shares of Sysco by 143.7% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 12,184,114 shares of the company’s stock worth $930,296,000 after buying an additional 7,184,754 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Sysco by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,206,978 shares of the company’s stock worth $551,046,000 after buying an additional 521,431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Sysco in the fourth quarter valued at $450,441,000. Institutional investors own 83.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered Sysco from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Sysco from $79.00 to $77.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Sysco in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Sysco to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Sysco from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.77.

Sysco Stock Performance

Shares of SYY stock opened at $75.27 on Friday. Sysco Co. has a 52 week low of $69.03 and a 52 week high of $82.23. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $75.10. The firm has a market cap of $36.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.66, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 1.20.

Sysco (NYSE:SYY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. Sysco had a net margin of 2.40% and a return on equity of 106.30%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Sysco Co. will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Sysco Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.51 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.71%. Sysco’s payout ratio is 52.44%.

About Sysco

Sysco Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the marketing and distribution of various food and related products to the foodservice or food-away-from-home industry in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and internationally. It operates through U.S. Foodservice Operations, International Foodservice Operations, SYGMA, and Other segments.