WK Kellogg (NYSE:KLG) Trading Up 10.1% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of WK Kellogg Co (NYSE:KLG) shot up 10.1% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $19.09 and last traded at $19.95. 579,341 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 48% from the average session volume of 1,104,002 shares. The stock had previously closed at $18.11.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on KLG. TD Cowen downgraded WK Kellogg from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $18.00 to $16.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on WK Kellogg from $19.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on WK Kellogg from $19.00 to $18.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on WK Kellogg from $19.00 to $16.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.88.

WK Kellogg Price Performance

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.72. The stock has a market cap of $1.70 billion, a PE ratio of 25.30 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.34.

WK Kellogg (NYSE:KLG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.14. WK Kellogg had a return on equity of 33.41% and a net margin of 2.50%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that WK Kellogg Co will post 1.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

WK Kellogg Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a $0.165 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.34%. This is a boost from WK Kellogg’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. WK Kellogg’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 82.05%.

Institutional Trading of WK Kellogg

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of WK Kellogg by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 39,658 shares of the company’s stock valued at $713,000 after acquiring an additional 838 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of WK Kellogg by 88.6% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,890 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 888 shares during the last quarter. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of WK Kellogg during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in shares of WK Kellogg by 26.9% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 7,813 shares of the company’s stock valued at $141,000 after acquiring an additional 1,657 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its stake in shares of WK Kellogg by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 16,818 shares of the company’s stock valued at $303,000 after acquiring an additional 1,955 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.74% of the company’s stock.

About WK Kellogg

WK Kellogg Co operates as a food company in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. It manufactures, markets, and distributes ready-to-eat cereal products primarily under the Frosted Flakes, Special K, Froot Loops, Raisin Bran, Frosted Mini-Wheats, and Kashi brands. The company was formerly known as North America Cereal Co and changed its name to WK Kellogg Co in March 2023.