KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) Upgraded by Zacks Research to “Hold” Rating

Zacks Research upgraded shares of KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a report published on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of KKR & Co. Inc. from $106.00 to $104.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of KKR & Co. Inc. from $127.00 to $122.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of KKR & Co. Inc. from $113.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of KKR & Co. Inc. from $135.00 to $117.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of KKR & Co. Inc. from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.53.

KKR & Co. Inc. Stock Performance

KKR & Co. Inc. stock opened at $96.00 on Thursday. KKR & Co. Inc. has a 12-month low of $82.67 and a 12-month high of $153.87. The company has a market capitalization of $86.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $96.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $109.12.

KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The asset manager reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. KKR & Co. Inc. had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 5.42%. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter. On average, research analysts forecast that KKR & Co. Inc. will post 5.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

KKR & Co. Inc. declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, May 5th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the asset manager to repurchase up to 0.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

KKR & Co. Inc. Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were paid a dividend of $0.195 per share. This is a positive change from KKR & Co. Inc.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $0.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. KKR & Co. Inc.’s payout ratio is currently 26.53%.

Insider Activity

In other KKR & Co. Inc. news, Director Timothy R. Barakett purchased 50,000 shares of KKR & Co. Inc. stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $94.47 per share, for a total transaction of $4,723,500.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 285,000 shares in the company, valued at $26,923,950. This represents a 21.28% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 23.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in KKR & Co. Inc. by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,313,857 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $170,736,000 after purchasing an additional 65,178 shares during the last quarter. Banco Santander S.A. lifted its position in KKR & Co. Inc. by 5,405.9% in the 3rd quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 144,970 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $18,839,000 after purchasing an additional 142,337 shares during the last quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd lifted its position in KKR & Co. Inc. by 816.2% in the 3rd quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd now owns 25,791 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,352,000 after purchasing an additional 22,976 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG lifted its position in KKR & Co. Inc. by 63.2% in the 3rd quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG now owns 98,983 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $12,862,000 after purchasing an additional 38,322 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Employees Retirement System of Texas lifted its position in KKR & Co. Inc. by 54.9% in the 3rd quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas now owns 540,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $70,212,000 after purchasing an additional 191,600 shares during the last quarter. 76.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About KKR & Co. Inc.

KKR & Co Inc is a global investment firm headquartered in New York City that specializes in private markets and alternative asset management. Founded in 1976 by Jerome Kohlberg Jr., Henry Kravis and George R. Roberts, the firm built its reputation in leveraged buyouts and has since expanded into a multi-strategy asset manager. KKR operates across private equity, credit, real assets (including real estate and infrastructure), growth equity and hedge fund strategies, offering a range of investment products and strategies for institutional and private investors.

KKR manages capital through traditional closed-end funds as well as customized vehicles such as separate accounts, co-investments, and listed investment vehicles.