Corteva (NYSE:CTVA) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• JPMorgan upgraded Corteva from neutral to overweight and set a $19 price target, prompting shares to gap up from $12.39 to $13.08 and trade as high as $13.596.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive: 15 analysts rate Corteva a Buy and eight rate it a Hold, producing a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating.
• Corteva exceeded quarterly EPS expectations, reporting $2.30 versus $2.24 forecast, while revenue declined 1.2% year over year; the company also maintains a $0.72 annualized dividend, yielding about 5.3%.

Shares of Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA - Get Free Report) gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to an overweight rating. The stock had previously closed at $12.39, but opened at $13.08. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now has a $19.00 price target on the stock. Corteva shares last traded at $13.5960, with a volume of 7,991,892 shares traded.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on CTVA. Barclays raised their price target on Corteva from $84.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Corteva from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $103.00 target price on shares of Corteva in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Corteva from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Corteva from $96.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Fifteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $73.95.

Institutional Trading of Corteva

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Corteva in the 2nd quarter worth about $4,560,180,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Corteva by 941.7% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,612,704 shares of the company's stock valued at $644,720,000 after buying an additional 6,881,875 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new position in shares of Corteva during the second quarter worth approximately $544,246,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Corteva in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $484,927,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in Corteva during the 2nd quarter valued at $482,836,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.54% of the company's stock.

Corteva Stock Up 9.8%

The company has a market cap of $9.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 0.57. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $80.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Corteva (NYSE:CTVA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $2.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.24 by $0.06. Corteva had a net margin of 5.66% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The company had revenue of $6.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.20 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Corteva has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.600-3.800 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Corteva, Inc. will post 3.72 EPS for the current year.

Corteva Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 1st were paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 1st. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.3%. Corteva's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.68%.

Corteva Company Profile

Corteva, Inc is an agriculture-focused company that develops and supplies seed, crop protection and digital agriculture products. Its offerings are designed to help farmers improve crop productivity, manage pests and diseases, and support more efficient and sustainable farming practices.

The company's seed portfolio includes corn, soybean, wheat, sunflower, canola, cotton and other crops, marketed through brands such as Pioneer, Brevant seeds and PhytoGen. Corteva also provides herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, biological products and seed treatments under a range of agricultural brands.

Corteva serves farmers, agricultural retailers and other customers in markets around the world.

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