Merit Financial Group LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Tyson Foods, Inc. $TSN

Merit Financial Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE:TSN) by 26.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 34,914 shares of the company’s stock after selling 12,594 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Tyson Foods were worth $1,999,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its stake in Tyson Foods by 10.3% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,679 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment increased its stake in shares of Tyson Foods by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 12,562 shares of the company’s stock worth $805,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its stake in shares of Tyson Foods by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 40,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,376,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its holdings in shares of Tyson Foods by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 3,942 shares of the company’s stock worth $231,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Tyson Foods by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,862 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,000 after acquiring an additional 179 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. HSBC cut their price objective on shares of Tyson Foods from $74.00 to $69.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Tyson Foods from $71.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Tyson Foods from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, June 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on shares of Tyson Foods from $72.00 to $63.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Tyson Foods from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.67.

Tyson Foods Price Performance

TSN opened at $55.87 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $57.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.73. Tyson Foods, Inc. has a 12-month low of $50.56 and a 12-month high of $69.48. The firm has a market cap of $19.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.49, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.99. The company had revenue of $13.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.07 billion. Tyson Foods had a return on equity of 7.77% and a net margin of 1.03%.Tyson Foods’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Tyson Foods, Inc. will post 3.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Tyson Foods Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 1st will be issued a $0.51 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 1st. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Tyson Foods’s payout ratio is 125.93%.

About Tyson Foods

Tyson Foods, Inc (NYSE: TSN) is a multinational food company primarily engaged in the production, processing and marketing of protein-based and prepared food products. Founded in 1935 and headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, the company is one of the world’s largest processors of chicken, beef and pork. Its operations span live animal procurement and farming relationships through slaughter, further processing and distribution, supplying raw protein and value-added prepared foods to retail, foodservice and industrial customers.

The company’s product portfolio covers fresh and frozen meats, branded and private-label prepared foods, and a range of value-added items such as ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook meals, snack and sandwich meats.