First Merchants Corp Grows Stock Holdings in The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC)

First Merchants Corp raised its stake in The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) by 30.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,546 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,767 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Kraft Heinz were worth $232,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Kraft Heinz by 11.5% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,307,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $186,350,000 after buying an additional 545,504 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise lifted its position in shares of Kraft Heinz by 52.5% in the 3rd quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 170,511 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,988,000 after purchasing an additional 58,665 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its position in shares of Kraft Heinz by 229.8% in the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 342,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,530,000 after purchasing an additional 238,913 shares during the period. Easterly Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Kraft Heinz by 39.4% in the 3rd quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC now owns 157,479 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,529,000 after purchasing an additional 44,485 shares during the period. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in shares of Kraft Heinz by 12.6% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 487,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,132,000 after purchasing an additional 54,656 shares during the period. 78.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on KHC. Bank of America cut shares of Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Kraft Heinz from $35.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Kraft Heinz from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Kraft Heinz from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $39.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.86.

Kraft Heinz Stock Down 1.1 %

KHC stock opened at $28.92 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.77. The company has a market capitalization of $34.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The Kraft Heinz Company has a 12 month low of $27.25 and a 12 month high of $38.96.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 5.24% and a return on equity of 7.46%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Kraft Heinz Company will post 3 earnings per share for the current year.

Kraft Heinz Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.53%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Kraft Heinz’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.80%.

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.