R Squared Ltd Buys New Stake in Pilgrim’s Pride Co. (NASDAQ:PPC)

R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride Co. (NASDAQ:PPC) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PPC. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Pilgrim’s Pride by 1,289.4% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 5,225,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $240,621,000 after purchasing an additional 4,849,147 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 903.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,455,513 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,026,000 after purchasing an additional 1,310,530 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 881,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,620,000 after buying an additional 11,128 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 145,879.0% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 827,701 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,116,000 after buying an additional 827,134 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Pilgrim’s Pride by 88.3% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 433,891 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,981,000 after buying an additional 203,408 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 16.64% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Pilgrim’s Pride currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.50.

Pilgrim’s Pride Stock Performance

Pilgrim’s Pride stock opened at $46.54 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The company has a market cap of $11.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 0.84. Pilgrim’s Pride Co. has a fifty-two week low of $26.52 and a fifty-two week high of $55.50. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $47.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.17.

Pilgrim’s Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.36. Pilgrim’s Pride had a net margin of 5.46% and a return on equity of 29.92%. The company had revenue of $4.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.69 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.58 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Pilgrim’s Pride Co. will post 5.12 EPS for the current year.

Pilgrim’s Pride Company Profile

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. engages in the production, processing, marketing, and distribution of fresh, frozen and value-added chicken and pork products to retailers, distributors, and foodservice operators. It operates through the following segments: U.S., U.K. and Europe, and Mexico. The company was founded by Lonnie A.