The Middleby Corporation (NASDAQ:MIDD) Receives Consensus Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• The Middleby Corporation has received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from eight brokerages, with two analysts rating it as a sell, one as hold, and five as buy.
• The stock's average 1-year price target from analysts is $160.71, while recent trading shows shares have fallen 3.0% to about $134.59.
• Middleby reported earnings of $2.35 per share, exceeding expectations, but revenue decreased by 1.4% year-over-year.

The Middleby Corporation (NASDAQ:MIDD - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the eight research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $160.7143.

MIDD has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Middleby from $180.00 to $165.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Middleby from $145.00 to $125.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Middleby from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Sunday, July 20th. Zacks Research raised shares of Middleby to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research set a $163.00 price target on shares of Middleby and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th.

Institutional Trading of Middleby

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. TCTC Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Middleby by 116.7% during the first quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 169 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new position in Middleby in the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in Middleby by 168.8% in the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 207 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Middleby by 760.0% in the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 258 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AdvisorShares Investments LLC bought a new position in Middleby in the second quarter valued at approximately $37,000. 98.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Middleby Price Performance

NASDAQ:MIDD traded down $0.31 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $134.85. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,979,792 shares, compared to its average volume of 738,952. Middleby has a fifty-two week low of $118.09 and a fifty-two week high of $182.73. The company has a current ratio of 2.57, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The company has a market capitalization of $6.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.16 and a beta of 1.54. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $138.04 and a 200-day moving average of $142.09.

Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The industrial products company reported $2.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $977.86 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $979.59 million. Middleby had a net margin of 11.06% and a return on equity of 14.14%. The company's revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.39 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Middleby will post 9.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Middleby Company Profile

The Middleby Corporation designs, markets, manufactures, distributes, and services foodservice, food processing, and residential kitchen equipment worldwide. Its Commercial Foodservice Equipment Group segment offers conveyor, combi, convection, baking, proofing, deck, speed cooking, and hydrovection ovens; ranges, fryers, and rethermalizers; steam cooking, food warming, catering, induction cooking, and countertop cooking equipment; heated cabinets, charbroilers, ventless cooking systems, kitchen ventilation, toasters, griddles, charcoal grills, professional mixers, stainless steel fabrication, custom millwork, professional refrigerators, blast chillers, cold rooms, ice machines, and freezers; soft serve ice cream, coffee and beverage dispensing, home and professional craft brewing equipment; and fry dispensers, bottle filling and canning equipment, IoT solutions, and controls development and manufacturing.