BRF (NYSE:BRFS) Lowered to Buy Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of BRF (NYSE:BRFS) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Bank of America boosted their target price on BRF from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays boosted their price objective on BRF from $4.50 to $5.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, BRF has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.70.

BRF Stock Performance

NYSE BRFS opened at $4.31 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The stock has a market cap of $4.66 billion, a PE ratio of 15.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.25 and a beta of 1.93. BRF has a twelve month low of $2.45 and a twelve month high of $4.76.

BRF (NYSE:BRFS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.04. BRF had a net margin of 3.61% and a return on equity of 11.51%. The business had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.55 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.10) earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that BRF will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current year.

BRF Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 27th will be paid a $0.1001 dividend. This is an increase from BRF’s previous dividend of $0.03. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 27th.

Institutional Trading of BRF

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in BRF by 534.6% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 4,623,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,816,000 after purchasing an additional 3,894,533 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of BRF by 56.5% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,692,814 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,170,000 after buying an additional 2,056,054 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of BRF by 660.0% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,208,375 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,281,000 after buying an additional 1,049,373 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in BRF in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,133,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in BRF in the second quarter valued at approximately $927,000. 4.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BRF Company Profile

BRF SA raises, produces, and slaughters poultry and pork for processing, production, and sale of fresh meat, processed products, pasta, margarine, pet food, and other products. The company provides frozen whole and cut chicken, frozen pork, and turkey, and halal products for Islamic markets; processed foods, such as marinated, frozen, seasoned whole, and cut chicken, roosters, sausages, ham products, bologna, frankfurters, salamis, bacons, cold meats, and other smoked products; and hamburgers, steaks, breaded meat products, kibbeh, and meatballs, as well as chicken sausages, hot dogs, and chicken bologna.