Cooke & Bieler LP Grows Stake in The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC)

Cooke & Bieler LP raised its stake in The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) by 29.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,317,894 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 983,632 shares during the period. Kraft Heinz makes up 1.3% of Cooke & Bieler LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Cooke & Bieler LP owned approximately 0.36% of Kraft Heinz worth $132,603,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 16.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 44,400,402 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,558,898,000 after acquiring an additional 6,366,732 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 11.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,150,328 shares of the company’s stock worth $669,821,000 after acquiring an additional 1,944,019 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Kraft Heinz in the third quarter worth $411,304,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,813,268 shares of the company’s stock worth $269,906,000 after acquiring an additional 1,238,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,601,292 shares of the company’s stock worth $172,016,000 after acquiring an additional 293,694 shares during the last quarter. 78.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Kraft Heinz Stock Up 0.1 %

KHC stock opened at $32.22 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $29.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 1.06. The Kraft Heinz Company has a fifty-two week low of $27.25 and a fifty-two week high of $38.96. The company has a market cap of $38.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.40.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.06. Kraft Heinz had a return on equity of 7.58% and a net margin of 10.62%. As a group, analysts forecast that The Kraft Heinz Company will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Kraft Heinz Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.97%. Kraft Heinz’s payout ratio is currently 70.80%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on KHC. Citigroup cut Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $34.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Kraft Heinz from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Kraft Heinz from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com cut Kraft Heinz from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Kraft Heinz from $33.00 to $29.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have issued a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.86.

Kraft Heinz Company Profile

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.