Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) Upgraded to Buy by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG – Get Rating) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Wednesday.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Conagra Brands from a hold rating to a sell rating and increased their target price for the company from $33.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 6th. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Conagra Brands in a research note on Tuesday, November 15th. They set an outperform rating and a $42.00 target price for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Conagra Brands from $35.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Friday, January 6th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Conagra Brands from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, January 6th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Conagra Brands from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a report on Friday, October 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $40.45.

Conagra Brands Price Performance

Conagra Brands stock opened at $38.45 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.72. The stock has a market cap of $18.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.57. Conagra Brands has a 12-month low of $30.06 and a 12-month high of $41.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 5th. The company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.15. Conagra Brands had a return on equity of 14.38% and a net margin of 5.66%. The firm had revenue of $3.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Conagra Brands will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Conagra Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, January 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 27th. Conagra Brands’s payout ratio is 93.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Robert G. Wise sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.90, for a total transaction of $2,045,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 22,717 shares in the company, valued at $929,125.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.98% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Conagra Brands

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CAG. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Conagra Brands by 11.9% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 27,918,907 shares of the company’s stock valued at $955,943,000 after acquiring an additional 2,969,072 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Conagra Brands by 12.8% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,556,766 shares of the company’s stock valued at $790,801,000 after acquiring an additional 2,671,720 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in Conagra Brands by 48.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,196,074 shares of the company’s stock valued at $136,918,000 after acquiring an additional 1,377,487 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in Conagra Brands by 20.4% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 6,112,442 shares of the company’s stock valued at $209,290,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in Conagra Brands by 99.4% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,761,843 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,146,000 after acquiring an additional 878,269 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.08% of the company’s stock.

Conagra Brands Company Profile

(Get Rating)

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