Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) Price Target to $30.00

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) had its price objective lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $31.00 to $30.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on KHC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Kraft Heinz from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Mizuho cut shares of Kraft Heinz from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $38.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Kraft Heinz from $37.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Kraft Heinz from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price objective (down from $40.00) on shares of Kraft Heinz in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.86.

Kraft Heinz Stock Performance

KHC opened at $28.92 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.74. The company has a market cap of $34.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.05, a PEG ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. Kraft Heinz has a 52-week low of $27.25 and a 52-week high of $38.96.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.06. Kraft Heinz had a net margin of 5.24% and a return on equity of 7.46%. Equities analysts anticipate that Kraft Heinz will post 3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kraft Heinz Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.53%. Kraft Heinz’s payout ratio is currently 144.14%.

Institutional Trading of Kraft Heinz

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Kraft Heinz by 19.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,508,763 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,779,524,000 after purchasing an additional 14,996,486 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Kraft Heinz by 16.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 44,400,402 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,558,898,000 after acquiring an additional 6,366,732 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Kraft Heinz by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,745,734 shares of the company’s stock valued at $604,644,000 after acquiring an additional 595,406 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Kraft Heinz in the 3rd quarter valued at $411,304,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Kraft Heinz in the 4th quarter valued at $324,857,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.17% of the company’s stock.

About Kraft Heinz

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.