Principle Wealth Partners LLC Takes Position in Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG)

Principle Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 10,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $294,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Conagra Brands by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,484,277 shares of the company’s stock valued at $796,229,000 after acquiring an additional 1,691,945 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Conagra Brands by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 12,285,579 shares of the company’s stock worth $341,048,000 after purchasing an additional 618,096 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Conagra Brands by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,514,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $373,180,000 after purchasing an additional 196,100 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in Conagra Brands by 21,015.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 10,654,828 shares of the company’s stock worth $346,495,000 after purchasing an additional 10,604,367 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its position in Conagra Brands by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 6,290,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $204,571,000 after purchasing an additional 122,590 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on CAG shares. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Conagra Brands from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Conagra Brands from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Conagra Brands from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $29.00 price objective on shares of Conagra Brands in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Conagra Brands from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Conagra Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.33.

Conagra Brands Stock Performance

Conagra Brands stock opened at $24.90 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $11.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $26.60 and a 200-day moving average of $28.82. Conagra Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.18 and a 52 week high of $33.24.

Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.15 billion. Conagra Brands had a return on equity of 13.76% and a net margin of 4.13%. The business’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.71 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Conagra Brands, Inc. will post 2.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Conagra Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, January 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, January 27th. Conagra Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 137.26%.

Conagra Brands Profile

Conagra Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer packaged goods food company primarily in the United States. The company operates through Grocery & Snacks, Refrigerated & Frozen, International, and Foodservice segments. The Grocery & Snacks segment primarily offers shelf stable food products through various retail channels.