Kestra Investment Management LLC Makes New $474,000 Investment in Pilgrim’s Pride Co. (NASDAQ:PPC)

Kestra Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride Co. (NASDAQ:PPC) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 10,288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $474,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Martingale Asset Management L P raised its stake in Pilgrim’s Pride by 23.4% in the 3rd quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 238,151 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,967,000 after acquiring an additional 45,172 shares during the period. PEAK6 Investments LLC bought a new stake in Pilgrim’s Pride in the 3rd quarter valued at about $719,000. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its stake in Pilgrim’s Pride by 26.4% in the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 12,255 shares of the company’s stock valued at $564,000 after acquiring an additional 2,556 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in Pilgrim’s Pride by 106.0% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 158,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,314,000 after acquiring an additional 81,727 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP raised its stake in Pilgrim’s Pride by 165.0% in the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 96,691 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,453,000 after acquiring an additional 60,201 shares during the period. 16.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on Pilgrim’s Pride from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America cut Pilgrim’s Pride from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $47.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Argus upped their price target on Pilgrim’s Pride from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Stephens assumed coverage on Pilgrim’s Pride in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Pilgrim’s Pride from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pilgrim’s Pride currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.50.

Pilgrim’s Pride Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of PPC opened at $51.61 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $12.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.47, a P/E/G ratio of 0.22 and a beta of 0.81. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.27. Pilgrim’s Pride Co. has a 1 year low of $25.33 and a 1 year high of $55.50.

Pilgrim’s Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.36. The business had revenue of $4.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.69 billion. Pilgrim’s Pride had a return on equity of 29.92% and a net margin of 5.46%. Pilgrim’s Pride’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.58 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Pilgrim’s Pride Co. will post 4.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pilgrim’s Pride Profile

Pilgrim's Pride Corporation produces, processes, markets, and distributes fresh, frozen, and value-added chicken and pork products to retailers, distributors, and foodservice operators. The company offers fresh products, including refrigerated whole or cut-up chicken, selected chicken parts that are either marinated or non-marinated, primary pork cuts, added value pork, and pork ribs; and prepared products, which include fully cooked, ready-to-cook and individually frozen chicken parts, strips, nuggets and patties, processed sausages, bacon, smoked meat, gammon joints, pre-packed meats, sandwich and deli counter meats and meat balls.