Assetmark Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Ambev S.A. $ABEV

Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ambev S.A. (NYSE:ABEV) by 61.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 872,694 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 332,425 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in Ambev were worth $2,548,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABEV. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Ambev by 291.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 45,462,628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,293,000 after buying an additional 33,842,540 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC increased its stake in Ambev by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 172,969,655 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,235,000 after purchasing an additional 14,468,963 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Ambev by 248.1% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 13,135,697 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,445,000 after buying an additional 9,361,815 shares during the period. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co boosted its stake in Ambev by 74.8% in the 2nd quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 13,409,316 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,624,000 after buying an additional 5,740,155 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Ambev by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 27,505,192 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,288,000 after buying an additional 2,479,310 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 8.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABEV has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Ambev from $2.65 to $2.90 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Barclays boosted their price target on Ambev from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Scotiabank lowered Ambev from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Ambev from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Ambev from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ambev has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $3.09.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ambev news, insider Paulo Andre Zagman sold 136,250 shares of Ambev stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.41, for a total value of $464,612.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 230,535 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $786,124.35. The trade was a 37.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Ambev Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of ABEV opened at $3.10 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $3.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $3.01. Ambev S.A. has a one year low of $2.10 and a one year high of $3.45. The company has a market capitalization of $48.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Ambev (NYSE:ABEV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05. Ambev had a net margin of 17.69% and a return on equity of 16.63%. The business had revenue of $4.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.38 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ambev S.A. will post 0.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ambev Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 11th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 24th will be given a $0.0092 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 24th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Ambev’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.53%.

About Ambev

Ambev (NYSE: ABEV) is a Brazilian-based beverage company that produces, distributes and markets a broad portfolio of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. The company’s core business centers on brewing and selling beer, alongside a range of soft drinks, bottled water, energy drinks and other malt-based beverages. Headquartered in São Paulo, Ambev operates an integrated value chain that covers manufacturing, packaging, logistics and commercial sales to retail, on-premise and institutional customers.

The company traces its origins to the 1999 merger of two historic Brazilian breweries, and later became part of the broader global brewing group through subsequent industry consolidations.