Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP Trims Holdings in The Middleby Corporation $MIDD

Key Points

• Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP reduced its holdings in The Middleby Corporation by 52.7% during the first quarter, leaving them with 24,875 shares valued at approximately $3.78 million.
• Several institutional investors, including Price T Rowe Associates, increased their stakes in Middleby, contributing to a total of 98.55% of shares owned by hedge funds and other institutions.
• Analysts have set varying price targets for Middleby, with Barclays lowering its price objective from $180 to $165, highlighting a split of ratings with five analysts rating the stock as a buy and others issuing sell or hold ratings.

Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP trimmed its position in The Middleby Corporation (NASDAQ:MIDD - Free Report) by 52.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,875 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 27,665 shares during the quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP's holdings in Middleby were worth $3,781,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MIDD. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Middleby by 59.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,029,484 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $460,422,000 after buying an additional 1,133,931 shares in the last quarter. Garden Investment Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Middleby during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $101,958,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in Middleby by 237.2% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 366,293 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $49,614,000 after buying an additional 257,669 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Middleby during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $29,733,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Middleby by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,247,671 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $169,000,000 after buying an additional 150,709 shares in the last quarter. 98.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MIDD has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Middleby from $180.00 to $165.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 21st. Zacks Research raised shares of Middleby to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Middleby from $188.00 to $162.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price target on shares of Middleby from $186.00 to $162.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Middleby from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, July 20th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $159.00.

Middleby Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of MIDD opened at $130.13 on Friday. The Middleby Corporation has a twelve month low of $118.09 and a twelve month high of $182.73. The company has a market cap of $6.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.56 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a current ratio of 2.57, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $141.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $146.34.

Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The industrial products company reported $2.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.15. Middleby had a net margin of 11.06% and a return on equity of 14.14%. The business had revenue of $977.86 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $979.59 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.39 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that The Middleby Corporation will post 9.11 EPS for the current year.

Middleby Company Profile

The Middleby Corporation designs, markets, manufactures, distributes, and services foodservice, food processing, and residential kitchen equipment worldwide. Its Commercial Foodservice Equipment Group segment offers conveyor, combi, convection, baking, proofing, deck, speed cooking, and hydrovection ovens; ranges, fryers, and rethermalizers; steam cooking, food warming, catering, induction cooking, and countertop cooking equipment; heated cabinets, charbroilers, ventless cooking systems, kitchen ventilation, toasters, griddles, charcoal grills, professional mixers, stainless steel fabrication, custom millwork, professional refrigerators, blast chillers, cold rooms, ice machines, and freezers; soft serve ice cream, coffee and beverage dispensing, home and professional craft brewing equipment; and fry dispensers, bottle filling and canning equipment, IoT solutions, and controls development and manufacturing.

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