Victory Capital Management Inc. Purchases 89,445 Shares of Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG)

Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG - Free Report) by 11.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 842,094 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 89,445 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned 0.18% of Conagra Brands worth $22,459,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Conagra Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $235,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in Conagra Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,034,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Conagra Brands by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,798,952 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,631,671,000 after acquiring an additional 1,132,839 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its stake in Conagra Brands by 28.5% in the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 1,674,848 shares of the company's stock valued at $46,477,000 after acquiring an additional 371,481 shares during the period. Finally, CoreFirst Bank & Trust bought a new stake in Conagra Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $73,000. Institutional investors own 83.75% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Conagra Brands from $26.00 to $21.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Conagra Brands and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Conagra Brands from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Conagra Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $26.00 to $21.00 in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Conagra Brands from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $22.58.

Conagra Brands Price Performance

Shares of CAG stock traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $19.22. 8,407,872 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,661,483. Conagra Brands has a fifty-two week low of $18.67 and a fifty-two week high of $33.24. The stock's fifty day moving average is $21.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.90. The company has a market cap of $9.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.24.

Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 10th. The company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.61 by ($0.05). Conagra Brands had a net margin of 9.92% and a return on equity of 12.52%. The business had revenue of $2,781,800 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.61 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Conagra Brands will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Conagra Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 28th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 30th will be issued a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 30th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.29%. Conagra Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 58.58%.

About Conagra Brands

Conagra Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer packaged goods food company primarily in the United States. The company operates through Grocery & Snacks, Refrigerated & Frozen, International, and Foodservice segments. The Grocery & Snacks segment primarily offers shelf stable food products through various retail channels.