Empirical Finance LLC Purchases 653 Shares of The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC)

Empirical Finance LLC grew its position in shares of The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 25,987 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 653 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Kraft Heinz were worth $912,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of KHC. LSV Asset Management increased its stake in Kraft Heinz by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 9,107,688 shares of the company’s stock valued at $293,450,000 after purchasing an additional 189,000 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of Kraft Heinz by 9.7% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 9,064,592 shares of the company’s stock valued at $292,061,000 after buying an additional 799,581 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Kraft Heinz by 83.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 8,709,714 shares of the company’s stock worth $321,388,000 after acquiring an additional 3,961,872 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Kraft Heinz by 47.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,536,214 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,379,000 after acquiring an additional 1,778,263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Kraft Heinz by 14.2% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,063,076 shares of the company’s stock valued at $130,912,000 after purchasing an additional 505,180 shares during the last quarter. 78.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Kraft Heinz

In other news, EVP Pedro F. P. Navio sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.45, for a total value of $1,505,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 168,195 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,626,122.75. This trade represents a 21.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Kraft Heinz Trading Down 2.0 %

NASDAQ:KHC opened at $31.14 on Friday. The Kraft Heinz Company has a 12 month low of $30.40 and a 12 month high of $38.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $34.53 and its 200 day moving average is $34.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.65 billion, a PE ratio of 28.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.49.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $6.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.42 billion. Kraft Heinz had a return on equity of 7.46% and a net margin of 5.24%. The business’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that The Kraft Heinz Company will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Kraft Heinz Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.14%. Kraft Heinz’s dividend payout ratio is presently 144.14%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on KHC shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Kraft Heinz from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus cut Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Kraft Heinz from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Kraft Heinz from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Kraft Heinz from $42.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Kraft Heinz presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.00.

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.