Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Sells 40,159 Shares of Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc decreased its stake in shares of Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) by 5.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 732,470 shares of the company’s stock after selling 40,159 shares during the quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned about 0.15% of Conagra Brands worth $20,326,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CAG. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Conagra Brands by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,798,952 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,631,671,000 after purchasing an additional 1,132,839 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Conagra Brands by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,745,629 shares of the company’s stock worth $325,096,000 after purchasing an additional 231,477 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Conagra Brands by 18.5% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,161,355 shares of the company’s stock worth $309,728,000 after buying an additional 1,745,319 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Conagra Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $168,877,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in Conagra Brands by 51.6% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 5,664,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $157,184,000 after buying an additional 1,928,883 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CAG has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on Conagra Brands from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 7th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Conagra Brands from $28.00 to $26.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Conagra Brands from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Monday, February 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Conagra Brands from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Conagra Brands from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.80.

Conagra Brands Stock Performance

Conagra Brands stock opened at $23.11 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.18. Conagra Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $22.78 and a 1-year high of $33.24. The company’s 50-day moving average is $25.44 and its 200 day moving average is $26.33.

Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.01). Conagra Brands had a return on equity of 13.76% and a net margin of 4.13%. The business had revenue of $2.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.69 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Conagra Brands, Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Conagra Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 28th. Conagra Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 205.88%.

About Conagra Brands

Conagra Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer packaged goods food company primarily in the United States. The company operates through Grocery & Snacks, Refrigerated & Frozen, International, and Foodservice segments. The Grocery & Snacks segment primarily offers shelf stable food products through various retail channels.