Triumph Capital Management Invests $368,000 in Pilgrim's Pride Co. (NASDAQ:PPC)

Triumph Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Pilgrim's Pride Co. (NASDAQ:PPC - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 8,099 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $368,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Pilgrim's Pride in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Pilgrim's Pride by 132.1% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 1,344 shares of the company's stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Pilgrim's Pride in the 4th quarter worth $118,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Pilgrim's Pride by 31.9% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,688 shares of the company's stock valued at $122,000 after buying an additional 650 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Pilgrim's Pride during the third quarter worth about $141,000. Institutional investors own 16.64% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PPC has been the subject of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Pilgrim's Pride from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Santander began coverage on Pilgrim's Pride in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. They set a "neutral" rating on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com raised Pilgrim's Pride from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Pilgrim's Pride has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $48.40.

Pilgrim's Pride Stock Down 0.4 %

PPC traded down $0.18 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $46.61. 338,416 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,156,474. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.31. Pilgrim's Pride Co. has a fifty-two week low of $33.70 and a fifty-two week high of $57.16. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $52.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.15. The stock has a market cap of $11.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.24 and a beta of 0.51.

Pilgrim's Pride (NASDAQ:PPC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $4.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.53 billion. Pilgrim's Pride had a net margin of 6.08% and a return on equity of 32.83%. Pilgrim's Pride's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.77 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Pilgrim's Pride Co. will post 5.13 EPS for the current year.

Pilgrim's Pride Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a special dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd were paid a $6.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Pilgrim's Pride's previous special dividend of $2.75.

Pilgrim's Pride Profile

Pilgrim's Pride Corp. engages in the production, processing, marketing, and distribution of fresh, frozen and value-added chicken and pork products to retailers, distributors, and foodservice operators. It operates through the following segments: U.S., U.K. and Europe, and Mexico. The company was founded by Lonnie A.