The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $125.67.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on SJM shares. Barclays reduced their target price on J. M. Smucker from $123.00 to $119.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. StockNews.com lowered J. M. Smucker from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of J. M. Smucker from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $130.00 to $121.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of J. M. Smucker in a report on Monday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $123.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of J. M. Smucker from $125.00 to $120.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th.

Insider Transactions at J. M. Smucker

In other J. M. Smucker news, CFO Tucker H. Marshall sold 5,028 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.36, for a total value of $569,974.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 13,263 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,503,493.68. This represents a 27.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of J. M. Smucker

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in J. M. Smucker in the 4th quarter valued at about $112,978,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of J. M. Smucker by 40.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,353,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $406,169,000 after buying an additional 958,142 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of J. M. Smucker by 3,599.5% in the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 929,400 shares of the company’s stock valued at $102,346,000 after purchasing an additional 904,278 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in J. M. Smucker by 12.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,111,023 shares of the company’s stock worth $861,145,000 after buying an additional 762,746 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in J. M. Smucker by 891.3% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 579,903 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,226,000 after buying an additional 521,404 shares in the last quarter. 81.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

J. M. Smucker Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SJM opened at $111.76 on Tuesday. J. M. Smucker has a fifty-two week low of $98.77 and a fifty-two week high of $127.15. The company has a market cap of $11.89 billion, a PE ratio of 22.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.58. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $107.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $112.29.

J. M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $2.61 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.37 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.23 billion. J. M. Smucker had a net margin of 5.96% and a return on equity of 14.35%. As a group, equities analysts expect that J. M. Smucker will post 9.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

J. M. Smucker Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $1.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.87%. J. M. Smucker’s dividend payout ratio is currently -179.25%.

About J. M. Smucker

The J. M. Smucker Company manufactures and markets branded food and beverage products worldwide. It operates in three segments: U.S. Retail Pet Foods, U.S. Retail Coffee, and U.S. Retail Consumer Foods. The company offers mainstream roast, ground, single serve, and premium coffee; peanut butter and specialty spreads; fruit spreads, toppings, and syrups; jelly products; nut mix products; shortening and oils; frozen sandwiches and snacks; pet food and pet snacks; and foodservice hot beverage, foodservice portion control, and flour products, as well as dog and cat food, frozen handheld products, juices and beverages, and baking mixes and ingredients.