The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) Short Interest Update

The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) saw a significant decline in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 36,380,000 shares, a decline of 9.8% from the January 15th total of 40,330,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 10,230,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.6 days. Approximately 3.0% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on KHC. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $39.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen cut their target price on Kraft Heinz from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Kraft Heinz from $35.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Mizuho lowered Kraft Heinz from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $38.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Bank of America lowered Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $36.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.86.

Kraft Heinz Price Performance

NASDAQ:KHC traded down $0.33 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $28.92. The company had a trading volume of 9,271,761 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,310,077. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $29.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.72. Kraft Heinz has a one year low of $27.25 and a one year high of $38.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.97 billion, a PE ratio of 26.05, a PEG ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.06. Kraft Heinz had a return on equity of 7.46% and a net margin of 5.24%. Analysts forecast that Kraft Heinz will post 3 earnings per share for the current year.

Kraft Heinz Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.53%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Kraft Heinz’s payout ratio is presently 144.14%.

Institutional Trading of Kraft Heinz

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 19.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,508,763 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,779,524,000 after acquiring an additional 14,996,486 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 16.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 44,400,402 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,558,898,000 after acquiring an additional 6,366,732 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Kraft Heinz by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,745,734 shares of the company’s stock valued at $604,644,000 after buying an additional 595,406 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Kraft Heinz in the third quarter valued at about $411,304,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Kraft Heinz in the fourth quarter valued at about $324,857,000. Institutional investors own 78.17% of the company’s stock.

Kraft Heinz Company Profile

The Kraft Heinz Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets food and beverage products in North America and internationally. Its products include condiments and sauces, cheese and dairy products, meals, meats, refreshment beverages, coffee, and other grocery products under the Kraft, Oscar Mayer, Heinz, Philadelphia, Lunchables, Velveeta, Ore-Ida, Maxwell House, Kool-Aid, Jell-O, Heinz, ABC, Master, Quero, Kraft, Golden Circle, Wattie's, Pudliszki, and Plasmon brands.