Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (NASDAQ:KDP) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (NASDAQ:KDP) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 16,370,000 shares, a decrease of 32.4% from the October 31st total of 24,210,000 shares. Currently, 1.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 10,110,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.6 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on KDP. Barclays lowered their target price on Keurig Dr Pepper from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Keurig Dr Pepper from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Keurig Dr Pepper from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Keurig Dr Pepper from $43.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Keurig Dr Pepper from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $38.36.

Keurig Dr Pepper Stock Performance

Shares of KDP traded up $0.07 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $32.65. 4,642,583 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,265,329. Keurig Dr Pepper has a twelve month low of $28.61 and a twelve month high of $38.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The company has a market cap of $44.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.75, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.63. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.67.

Keurig Dr Pepper (NASDAQ:KDP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51. Keurig Dr Pepper had a return on equity of 10.45% and a net margin of 15.04%. The company had revenue of $3.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.48 earnings per share. Keurig Dr Pepper’s revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Keurig Dr Pepper will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Keurig Dr Pepper Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This is an increase from Keurig Dr Pepper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.82%. Keurig Dr Pepper’s payout ratio is presently 55.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Bevco B.V. Jab sold 69,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.65, for a total value of $2,252,850,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 214,443,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,001,592,649.35. This represents a 24.34 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC raised its stake in Keurig Dr Pepper by 9.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 102,183,144 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,829,824,000 after acquiring an additional 9,105,164 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Keurig Dr Pepper by 10.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,609,224 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,908,289,000 after buying an additional 4,970,467 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Keurig Dr Pepper by 2.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 22,548,844 shares of the company’s stock valued at $841,886,000 after buying an additional 591,316 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Keurig Dr Pepper by 5.0% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 15,318,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $574,146,000 after buying an additional 730,297 shares during the period. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its stake in shares of Keurig Dr Pepper by 2.4% in the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 13,342,765 shares of the company’s stock valued at $445,648,000 after buying an additional 317,837 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Keurig Dr Pepper Company Profile

Keurig Dr Pepper Inc owns, manufactures, and distributors beverages and single serve brewing systems in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: U.S. Refreshment Beverages, U.S. Coffee, and International. The U.S. Refreshment Beverages segment manufactures and distributes branded concentrates, syrup, and finished beverages.