Albertsons Companies, Inc. (NYSE:ACI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Albertsons Companies, Inc. has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from eighteen brokerages, with an average 12-month target price of $23.50.
• Recent insider trading included the sale of 230,000 shares by insider Anuj Dhanda, reducing his ownership by 43.35%, and a 100,000 share sale by EVP Michael T. Theilmann, reducing his ownership by 22.81%.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share, equating to an annualized yield of 3.0%, payable on November 7th to shareholders of record on October 24th.

Albertsons Companies, Inc. (NYSE:ACI - Get Free Report) has been given an average rating of "Moderate Buy" by the eighteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $23.50.

ACI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Albertsons Companies from $27.00 to $24.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Albertsons Companies from $27.00 to $23.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on Albertsons Companies from $23.00 to $21.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Tigress Financial reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of Albertsons Companies in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Albertsons Companies from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 15th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Anuj Dhanda sold 230,000 shares of Albertsons Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.25, for a total transaction of $4,427,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 300,577 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,786,107.25. The trade was a 43.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Michael T. Theilmann sold 100,000 shares of Albertsons Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.35, for a total value of $1,935,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 338,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,548,601.15. The trade was a 22.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.35% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Albertsons Companies by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,374,669 shares of the company's stock valued at $821,869,000 after buying an additional 1,064,547 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Albertsons Companies during the second quarter valued at approximately $320,613,000. LSV Asset Management boosted its position in shares of Albertsons Companies by 34.4% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 10,578,407 shares of the company's stock valued at $227,542,000 after buying an additional 2,705,368 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Albertsons Companies by 7.2% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,977,542 shares of the company's stock valued at $171,597,000 after buying an additional 539,250 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Albertsons Companies by 1.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,901,015 shares of the company's stock valued at $169,510,000 after buying an additional 124,824 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.35% of the company's stock.

Albertsons Companies Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of ACI stock opened at $19.77 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $10.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.70, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.49. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25, a quick ratio of 0.18 and a current ratio of 0.81. Albertsons Companies has a fifty-two week low of $16.70 and a fifty-two week high of $23.20.

Albertsons Companies (NYSE:ACI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $24.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.68 billion. Albertsons Companies had a return on equity of 36.39% and a net margin of 1.20%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Albertsons Companies will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Albertsons Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 24th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 24th. Albertsons Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.50%.

Albertsons Companies Company Profile

Albertsons Companies, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of food and drug stores in the United States. The company's food and drug retail stores offer grocery products, general merchandise, health and beauty care products, pharmacy, fuel, and other items and services. It also manufactures and processes food products for sale in stores.

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