HM Payson & Co. Sells 562 Shares of The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC)

HM Payson & Co. decreased its position in shares of The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) by 21.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,069 shares of the company’s stock after selling 562 shares during the quarter. HM Payson & Co.’s holdings in Kraft Heinz were worth $64,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Kraft Heinz by 14.4% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,097,084 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,519,000 after acquiring an additional 138,101 shares during the period. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Kraft Heinz in the third quarter valued at $33,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 97,462 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,422,000 after purchasing an additional 1,070 shares during the period. First Personal Financial Services lifted its holdings in Kraft Heinz by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. First Personal Financial Services now owns 26,950 shares of the company’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 2,577 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc boosted its stake in Kraft Heinz by 36.3% in the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 41,959 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,473,000 after purchasing an additional 11,185 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.17% of the company’s stock.

Kraft Heinz Stock Up 2.9 %

Shares of KHC opened at $32.18 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $38.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.40. The Kraft Heinz Company has a 1 year low of $27.25 and a 1 year high of $38.96. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 0.59.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.06. Kraft Heinz had a net margin of 10.62% and a return on equity of 7.58%. On average, analysts forecast that The Kraft Heinz Company will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kraft Heinz Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Kraft Heinz’s dividend payout ratio is presently 70.80%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KHC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Kraft Heinz from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Kraft Heinz from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Kraft Heinz from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup cut shares of Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $34.00 to $28.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on Kraft Heinz from $37.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Kraft Heinz presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.86.

Kraft Heinz Profile

The Kraft Heinz Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets food and beverage products in North America and internationally. Its products include condiments and sauces, cheese and dairy products, meals, meats, refreshment beverages, coffee, and other grocery products under the Kraft, Oscar Mayer, Heinz, Philadelphia, Lunchables, Velveeta, Ore-Ida, Maxwell House, Kool-Aid, Jell-O, Heinz, ABC, Master, Quero, Kraft, Golden Circle, Wattie's, Pudliszki, and Plasmon brands.