Invesco Ltd. Sells 590,474 Shares of Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC)

Key Points

• Invesco Ltd. sold 590,474 shares of Kraft Heinz, reducing its holdings by 3.5% and now owns approximately 16.41 million shares worth $499.46 million.
• Vanguard Group significantly increased its stake in Kraft Heinz by 12.7%, owning over 101.98 million shares valued at $3.1 billion.
• Kraft Heinz announced a quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share, with an annualized yield of 5.8%, payable on September 26th to investors of record as of August 29th.

Invesco Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC - Free Report) by 3.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,413,412 shares of the company's stock after selling 590,474 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. owned about 1.39% of Kraft Heinz worth $499,460,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rossby Financial LCC purchased a new stake in shares of Kraft Heinz in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Kraft Heinz during the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Investment Management Corp VA ADV increased its position in Kraft Heinz by 141.7% during the first quarter. Investment Management Corp VA ADV now owns 1,141 shares of the company's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 669 shares during the last quarter. Pinney & Scofield Inc. acquired a new position in Kraft Heinz during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Abound Wealth Management raised its holdings in Kraft Heinz by 1,157.0% in the first quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 1,257 shares of the company's stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 1,157 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.17% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on KHC shares. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Kraft Heinz from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Cfra Research downgraded shares of Kraft Heinz from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Kraft Heinz from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $34.00 to $31.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Kraft Heinz from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Kraft Heinz from $31.00 to $30.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and seventeen have given a hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Kraft Heinz presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $30.35.

Kraft Heinz Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:KHC traded up $0.67 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $28.02. 12,528,840 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,890,373. Kraft Heinz Company has a 52 week low of $25.44 and a 52 week high of $36.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 1.07. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $26.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $28.44. The company has a market cap of $33.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.23.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.05. Kraft Heinz had a negative net margin of 20.83% and a positive return on equity of 7.40%. The company had revenue of $6.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.78 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Kraft Heinz Company will post 2.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kraft Heinz Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 29th. Kraft Heinz's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -35.63%.

Insider Activity at Kraft Heinz

In related news, Director Elio Leoni Sceti sold 25,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.91, for a total transaction of $697,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 40,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,116,400. This trade represents a 38.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.35% of the company's stock.

Kraft Heinz Company Profile

The Kraft Heinz Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets food and beverage products in North America and internationally. Its products include condiments and sauces, cheese and dairy products, meals, meats, refreshment beverages, coffee, and other grocery products under the Kraft, Oscar Mayer, Heinz, Philadelphia, Lunchables, Velveeta, Ore-Ida, Maxwell House, Kool-Aid, Jell-O, Heinz, ABC, Master, Quero, Kraft, Golden Circle, Wattie's, Pudliszki, and Plasmon brands.