Raymond James & Associates Invests $389,000 in Pilgrim’s Pride Co. (NASDAQ:PPC)

Raymond James & Associates acquired a new position in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride Co. (NASDAQ:PPC) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 14,054 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $389,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 592.8% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 970,653 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,160,000 after acquiring an additional 830,555 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 0.6% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 593,432 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,548,000 after purchasing an additional 3,281 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 1.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 300,480 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,860,000 after purchasing an additional 2,966 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 192.4% during the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 245,611 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,560,000 after purchasing an additional 161,623 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride during the third quarter worth $4,109,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 16.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on PPC. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from a “c+” rating to a “b+” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $38.00 price objective (up previously from $35.00) on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.25.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Fabio Sandri sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.32, for a total value of $1,332,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 257,065 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,565,405.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 82.63% of the company’s stock.

Pilgrim’s Pride Stock Performance

NASDAQ PPC opened at $35.76 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $33.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.02. Pilgrim’s Pride Co. has a 1 year low of $19.96 and a 1 year high of $36.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The company has a market capitalization of $8.47 billion, a PE ratio of 26.49, a P/E/G ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.82.

Pilgrim’s Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.16. Pilgrim’s Pride had a net margin of 1.85% and a return on equity of 12.90%. The business had revenue of $4.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.48 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.49) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Pilgrim’s Pride Co. will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Pilgrim’s Pride Company Profile

Pilgrim's Pride Corporation produces, processes, markets, and distributes fresh, frozen, and value-added chicken and pork products to retailers, distributors, and foodservice operators. The company offers fresh products, including refrigerated whole or cut-up chicken, selected chicken parts that are either marinated or non-marinated, primary pork cuts, added value pork, and pork ribs; and prepared products, which include fully cooked, ready-to-cook and individually frozen chicken parts, strips, nuggets and patties, processed sausages, bacon, smoked meat, gammon joints, pre-packed meats, sandwich and deli counter meats and meat balls.