Empowered Funds LLC Purchases Shares of 56,021 Pilgrim's Pride Corporation $PPC

Key Points

• Empowered Funds LLC initiated a position in Pilgrim’s Pride, purchasing 56,021 shares valued at approximately $1.575 million. Other major investors, including Vanguard, AQR Capital, Dimensional Fund Advisors and Bank of America, also increased their holdings.
• Analysts remain cautious, with UBS and Bank of America lowering their price targets and maintaining “neutral” ratings. The stock carries an overall “Hold” consensus and an average target price of $36.50.
• Pilgrim’s Pride shares opened at $30.51, down 2.0%, while the company’s latest quarterly results missed expectations: EPS was $0.64 versus the $0.70 consensus, and revenue fell 2.8% year over year to $4.63 billion.

Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (NASDAQ:PPC - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 56,021 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,575,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PPC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Pilgrim's Pride by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,804,210 shares of the company's stock worth $226,306,000 after acquiring an additional 131,482 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Pilgrim's Pride in the 2nd quarter worth about $138,936,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Pilgrim's Pride by 18.7% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,482,124 shares of the company's stock valued at $182,512,000 after acquiring an additional 705,946 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Pilgrim's Pride by 12.0% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,830,054 shares of the company's stock valued at $144,617,000 after purchasing an additional 411,656 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Pilgrim's Pride by 22.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,171,836 shares of the company's stock valued at $97,689,000 after purchasing an additional 404,915 shares during the last quarter. 16.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on PPC. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Pilgrim's Pride from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Bank of America decreased their price target on Pilgrim's Pride from $37.00 to $30.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Pilgrim's Pride from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $36.50.

Pilgrim's Pride Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of Pilgrim's Pride stock opened at $30.51 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.27 and a beta of 0.27. Pilgrim's Pride Corporation has a 52-week low of $25.90 and a 52-week high of $44.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 1.36. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $29.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.07.

Pilgrim's Pride (NASDAQ:PPC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($0.06). Pilgrim's Pride had a return on equity of 21.70% and a net margin of 2.96%.The company had revenue of $4.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.70 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Pilgrim's Pride Corporation will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Pilgrim's Pride Company Profile

Pilgrim's Pride Corporation is a leading poultry producer in the United States and Mexico and a wholly owned subsidiary of JBS SA Headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, and Pittsburg, Texas, the company specializes in the production, processing and distribution of fresh, frozen and value-added chicken products. Pilgrim's Pride serves a diverse customer base that includes retail grocery chains, foodservice distributors and restaurant operators across North America and in select international markets.

The company's vertically integrated operations encompass breeding, hatching, feed milling, processing plants and cold storage facilities.

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