Russell Investments Group Ltd. Acquires 184,966 Shares of Americold Realty Trust Inc. $COLD

Key Points

• Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Americold Realty Trust by 9.8% during the 1st quarter, owning approximately 0.73% of the company, valued at $44.4 million.
• Analysts have mixed views on Americold Realty Trust, with BNP Paribas Exane downgrading its rating to "neutral" with a price target of $18.00, while Wall Street Zen upgraded it to "hold".
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.23 per share, translating to an annualized yield of 6.2%, despite a negative dividend payout ratio of -484.21%.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Americold Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE:COLD - Free Report) by 9.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,069,618 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 184,966 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.73% of Americold Realty Trust worth $44,414,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Americold Realty Trust by 649.2% during the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 4,158,779 shares of the company's stock valued at $89,247,000 after buying an additional 3,603,716 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its position in shares of Americold Realty Trust by 115.8% during the fourth quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 6,387,738 shares of the company's stock valued at $136,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,427,083 shares in the last quarter. Lasalle Investment Management Securities LLC raised its holdings in Americold Realty Trust by 85.6% in the fourth quarter. Lasalle Investment Management Securities LLC now owns 3,586,563 shares of the company's stock worth $76,752,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,650 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Americold Realty Trust during the first quarter valued at $33,751,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of Americold Realty Trust during the 1st quarter valued at $33,013,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on COLD shares. BNP Paribas Exane lowered shares of Americold Realty Trust from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $18.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Americold Realty Trust from $23.00 to $18.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Americold Realty Trust from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $24.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised Americold Realty Trust from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Americold Realty Trust from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $22.67.

Americold Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:COLD traded up $0.4590 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $14.7390. 699,383 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,914,808. Americold Realty Trust Inc. has a one year low of $14.23 and a one year high of $29.79. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $16.32 and a 200 day moving average of $18.67. The company has a market cap of $4.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -77.38, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a current ratio of 0.12.

Americold Realty Trust (NYSE:COLD - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.02. Americold Realty Trust had a negative net margin of 2.09% and a negative return on equity of 1.68%. The business had revenue of $650.75 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $644.95 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.38 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Americold Realty Trust Inc. will post 1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Americold Realty Trust

Americold Realty Trust, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which focuses on the ownership, operation, development, and acquisition of temperature-controlled warehouses. It operates through the following segments: Warehouse, Third-Party Managed, Transportation, and Other. The Warehouse segment collects rent and storage fees from customers to store frozen and perishable food and other products within the firm's real estate portfolio.