16,600 Shares in The ODP Co. (NASDAQ:ODP) Purchased by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in The ODP Co. (NASDAQ:ODP) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 16,600 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $935,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in ODP by 49.9% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,481,692 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $83,419,000 after purchasing an additional 493,233 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of ODP by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 524,628 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $24,212,000 after acquiring an additional 54,836 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of ODP by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 487,239 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $22,486,000 after acquiring an additional 14,040 shares during the period. Cambria Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of ODP by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cambria Investment Management L.P. now owns 174,342 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $8,046,000 after acquiring an additional 11,102 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of ODP by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 92,485 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $4,268,000 after acquiring an additional 2,031 shares during the period. 99.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ODP. TheStreet downgraded shares of ODP from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of ODP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ODP currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

ODP Price Performance

Shares of ODP opened at $51.43 on Friday. The ODP Co. has a fifty-two week low of $39.36 and a fifty-two week high of $58.98. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $51.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market cap of $1.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.22, a PEG ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.62.

ODP (NASDAQ:ODP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The specialty retailer reported $0.92 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.16. ODP had a net margin of 1.77% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.84 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.85 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that The ODP Co. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ODP announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the specialty retailer to reacquire up to 48.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Diego Anthony Scaglione sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total value of $1,375,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 96,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,285,720. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

ODP Profile

The ODP Corporation provides business services and supplies, products, and digital workplace technology solutions for small, medium, and enterprise businesses in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The company operates through four divisions: ODP Business Solutions, Office Depot, Veyer, and Varis.