BRF (NYSE:BRFS) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Brf S.A. (NYSE:BRFS) gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $3.54, but opened at $3.69. BRF shares last traded at $3.73, with a volume of 121,678 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on BRFS. StockNews.com lowered shares of BRF from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Citigroup raised shares of BRF from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd.

BRF Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $4.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.73, a PEG ratio of 0.19 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a 50 day moving average of $3.35 and a 200-day moving average of $3.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

BRF (NYSE:BRFS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.72 billion. BRF had a return on equity of 19.66% and a net margin of 6.52%. Sell-side analysts predict that Brf S.A. will post 0.45 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of BRF

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BRFS. State Street Corp raised its stake in BRF by 2.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,006,059 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,396,000 after acquiring an additional 22,608 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BRF during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. PFG Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of BRF during the 4th quarter valued at $51,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in BRF by 55.8% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 27,106 shares of the company’s stock worth $118,000 after buying an additional 9,709 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. acquired a new stake in BRF in the fourth quarter worth $117,000. 4.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About BRF

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.