Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. Sells 1,356 Shares of Sysco Co. (NYSE:SYY)

Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Sysco Co. (NYSE:SYY) by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,161 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,356 shares during the quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Sysco were worth $1,771,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Boston Partners raised its holdings in Sysco by 143.7% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 12,184,114 shares of the company’s stock worth $930,296,000 after acquiring an additional 7,184,754 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Sysco by 11.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,294,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,130,617,000 after purchasing an additional 2,721,449 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in shares of Sysco in the third quarter worth about $137,900,000. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD acquired a new position in shares of Sysco during the 4th quarter worth about $123,928,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Sysco during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $97,078,000. Institutional investors own 83.41% of the company’s stock.

Sysco Trading Down 1.8 %

SYY stock opened at $71.12 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $73.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.66, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.68. Sysco Co. has a fifty-two week low of $69.03 and a fifty-two week high of $82.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.11.

Sysco (NYSE:SYY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. Sysco had a return on equity of 106.30% and a net margin of 2.40%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.89 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Sysco Co. will post 4.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sysco Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.51 per share. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. Sysco’s dividend payout ratio is 52.44%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sysco

In other news, EVP Greg D. Bertrand sold 48,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.00, for a total transaction of $3,698,079.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 56,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,335,408. This represents a 46.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on SYY shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Sysco from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Sysco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Melius initiated coverage on shares of Sysco in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $85.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Sysco from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Melius Research upgraded shares of Sysco to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.77.

Sysco Company Profile

Sysco Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the marketing and distribution of various food and related products to the foodservice or food-away-from-home industry in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and internationally. It operates through U.S. Foodservice Operations, International Foodservice Operations, SYGMA, and Other segments.