Applied Finance Capital Management LLC Buys Shares of 6,469 Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation $PPC

Applied Finance Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (NASDAQ:PPC) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 6,469 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $291,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brooklyn Investment Group boosted its stake in Pilgrim’s Pride by 309.4% in the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 651 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 492 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Pilgrim’s Pride in the first quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Pilgrim’s Pride in the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton acquired a new stake in Pilgrim’s Pride in the second quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Pilgrim’s Pride in the first quarter valued at approximately $74,000. 16.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on PPC. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from $54.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $47.67.

Pilgrim’s Pride Trading Up 0.2%

NASDAQ PPC opened at $37.36 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.87 billion, a PE ratio of 7.20 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a fifty day moving average of $42.87 and a 200 day moving average of $46.36. Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation has a 1 year low of $37.03 and a 1 year high of $57.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Pilgrim’s Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.62 billion. Pilgrim’s Pride had a net margin of 6.81% and a return on equity of 37.15%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.67 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation will post 5.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Pilgrim’s Pride Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th were given a dividend of $2.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 20th.

About Pilgrim’s Pride

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. engages in the production, processing, marketing, and distribution of fresh, frozen and value-added chicken and pork products to retailers, distributors, and foodservice operators. It operates through the following segments: U.S., U.K. and Europe, and Mexico. The company was founded by Lonnie A.