Calavo Growers (NASDAQ:CVGW) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Calavo Growers (NASDAQ:CVGW) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Thursday morning.

Separately, Lake Street Capital lowered their target price on Calavo Growers from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th.

Calavo Growers Stock Performance

NASDAQ CVGW opened at $23.15 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $412.07 million, a PE ratio of -385.83 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a current ratio of 2.17, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. Calavo Growers has a twelve month low of $20.30 and a twelve month high of $30.58. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $23.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $25.72.

Calavo Growers (NASDAQ:CVGW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by ($0.25). The business had revenue of $169.96 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $161.99 million. Calavo Growers had a positive return on equity of 9.66% and a negative net margin of 0.16%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.33) earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Calavo Growers will post 1.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Calavo Growers Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 29th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.46%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st. Calavo Growers’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 148.15%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Calavo Growers

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. LMR Partners LLP purchased a new position in shares of Calavo Growers in the 3rd quarter valued at about $253,000. Nuance Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Calavo Growers by 25.1% during the third quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 1,636,969 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,703,000 after buying an additional 328,820 shares in the last quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Calavo Growers during the third quarter worth about $825,000. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Calavo Growers during the third quarter worth about $401,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Calavo Growers during the third quarter worth about $357,000. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Calavo Growers

Calavo Growers, Inc markets and distributes avocados, prepared avocados, and other perishable foods to retail grocery and foodservice customers, club stores, mass merchandisers, food distributors, and wholesale customers worldwide. It operates through Grown and Prepared segments. The Grown segment distributes tomatoes and papayas; and procures avocados grown in California, Mexico, Peru, and Colombia.