Natixis Advisors LLC Has $23.62 Million Stake in The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC)

Natixis Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) by 15.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 769,109 shares of the company’s stock after selling 144,784 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Kraft Heinz were worth $23,619,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Kraft Heinz by 16.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 44,400,402 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,558,898,000 after acquiring an additional 6,366,732 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Kraft Heinz by 11.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,150,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $669,821,000 after purchasing an additional 1,944,019 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Kraft Heinz in the third quarter valued at about $411,304,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,813,268 shares of the company’s stock worth $269,906,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Kraft Heinz by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,601,292 shares of the company’s stock valued at $172,016,000 after buying an additional 293,694 shares during the last quarter. 78.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on KHC. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Kraft Heinz from $32.00 to $28.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Kraft Heinz from $34.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $35.00 target price (down from $38.00) on shares of Kraft Heinz in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Kraft Heinz from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup lowered Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $34.00 to $28.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and thirteen have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Kraft Heinz currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.86.

Kraft Heinz Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of Kraft Heinz stock opened at $30.66 on Tuesday. The Kraft Heinz Company has a 1 year low of $27.25 and a 1 year high of $38.96. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.06. The company has a market cap of $36.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.57, a PEG ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

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

Kraft Heinz Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.22%. Kraft Heinz’s dividend payout ratio is currently 70.80%.

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.