Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (NASDAQ:PPC) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (NASDAQ:PPC) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $38.20.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from $44.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride in a research note on Tuesday, May 19th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $30.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Barclays raised shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Stephens set a $40.00 price target on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pilgrim’s Pride

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PPC. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 59.3% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,776,178 shares of the company’s stock worth $169,852,000 after acquiring an additional 1,405,251 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 1,196.4% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 813,815 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,731,000 after acquiring an additional 751,042 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 27.7% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,418,398 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,296,000 after acquiring an additional 742,204 shares during the last quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,501,000. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 138.7% during the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 958,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,022,000 after acquiring an additional 556,766 shares during the last quarter. 16.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Pilgrim’s Pride Price Performance

Shares of Pilgrim’s Pride stock opened at $28.61 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $6.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.67 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.48. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $29.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.16. Pilgrim’s Pride has a one year low of $26.50 and a one year high of $50.56.

Pilgrim’s Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by ($0.18). Pilgrim’s Pride had a return on equity of 28.57% and a net margin of 4.78%.The company had revenue of $4.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.43 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.31 EPS. Pilgrim’s Pride’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Pilgrim’s Pride will post 3.52 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.