Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Raises Stock Holdings in Americold Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:COLD)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Americold Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:COLD) by 19.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 285,200 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 47,400 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s holdings in Americold Realty Trust were worth $6,103,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in COLD. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Americold Realty Trust during the fourth quarter worth about $478,674,000. Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its stake in Americold Realty Trust by 16.3% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 28,837,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $617,085,000 after acquiring an additional 4,049,374 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Americold Realty Trust by 253.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,213,139 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,761,000 after acquiring an additional 2,304,867 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Americold Realty Trust by 132.0% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,951,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,151,000 after acquiring an additional 1,678,949 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Americold Realty Trust by 78.5% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,522,206 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,975,000 after purchasing an additional 1,109,528 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on COLD shares. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Americold Realty Trust from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays raised shares of Americold Realty Trust from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $26.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Americold Realty Trust from $28.00 to $24.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $28.00.

Americold Realty Trust Stock Performance

NYSE:COLD opened at $19.60 on Tuesday. Americold Realty Trust, Inc. has a twelve month low of $16.67 and a twelve month high of $30.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -57.65, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $21.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.41.

Americold Realty Trust (NYSE:COLD) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $666.44 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $684.03 million. Americold Realty Trust had a negative return on equity of 2.70% and a negative net margin of 3.54%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Americold Realty Trust, Inc. will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Americold Realty Trust Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 28th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.69%. This is a positive change from Americold Realty Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Americold Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -270.59%.

About Americold Realty Trust

Americold Realty Trust, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which focuses on the ownership, operation, development, and acquisition of temperature-controlled warehouses. It operates through the following segments: Warehouse, Third-Party Managed, Transportation, and Other. The Warehouse segment collects rent and storage fees from customers to store frozen and perishable food and other products within the firm’s real estate portfolio.