Conagra Brands Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:CAG)

Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors acquired 13,957 put options on the company. This is an increase of 35% compared to the average volume of 10,312 put options.

Institutional Trading of Conagra Brands

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Conagra Brands by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,369,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,256,241,000 after buying an additional 966,031 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Conagra Brands by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,202,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $536,363,000 after purchasing an additional 588,435 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Conagra Brands by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,667,780 shares of the company’s stock valued at $305,829,000 after acquiring an additional 2,079,903 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Conagra Brands by 20.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 17,622,165 shares of the company’s stock valued at $305,044,000 after purchasing an additional 2,948,081 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Conagra Brands by 18.5% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 15,229,557 shares of the company’s stock valued at $263,624,000 after acquiring an additional 2,376,823 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore cut their price target on shares of Conagra Brands from $22.00 to $19.00 in a report on Friday, January 9th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of Conagra Brands in a research note on Friday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Conagra Brands from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Conagra Brands from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Conagra Brands from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $19.07.

Conagra Brands Trading Down 6.1%

Shares of NYSE:CAG traded down $1.10 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $16.98. The company had a trading volume of 11,100,961 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,872,888. The stock has a market cap of $8.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -77.06 and a beta of -0.02. Conagra Brands has a 12 month low of $15.96 and a 12 month high of $27.68. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.13. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, December 19th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.01. Conagra Brands had a negative net margin of 0.87% and a positive return on equity of 10.59%. The business had revenue of $2.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.70 EPS. Conagra Brands’s quarterly revenue was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Conagra Brands has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.700-1.85 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Conagra Brands will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Conagra Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 27th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.2%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, January 27th. Conagra Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -636.36%.

Conagra Brands Company Profile

Conagra Brands, Inc is a leading packaged foods company based in Chicago, Illinois, with a broad portfolio of shelf-stable, frozen and refrigerated foods marketed under familiar brands. The company develops, produces and distributes a wide range of consumer food products, serving both retail grocery and foodservice channels. Conagra’s product lineup includes frozen entrees, snacks, condiments, baking goods and desserts, providing convenient meal solutions for consumers across North America and select international markets.

Among its well-known brands are Birds Eye, Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, Marie Callender’s and Banquet in the frozen foods category, as well as Hunt’s sauces, Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn, Slim Jim meat snacks and Reddi-wip toppings.