Wellington Management Group LLP Grows Holdings in Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation $PPC

Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (NASDAQ:PPC) by 262.5% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 547,122 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 396,181 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Pilgrim’s Pride were worth $15,380,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride during the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. MCF Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. acquired a new position in Pilgrim’s Pride in the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in Pilgrim’s Pride by 205.4% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,014 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 682 shares during the period. Finally, State of Wyoming purchased a new position in Pilgrim’s Pride during the second quarter worth approximately $49,000. 16.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on PPC shares. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Pilgrim’s Pride from $37.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Weiss Ratings downgraded Pilgrim’s Pride from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on Pilgrim’s Pride from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.50.

Pilgrim’s Pride Stock Performance

Shares of PPC opened at $30.48 on Tuesday. Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation has a 12-month low of $25.90 and a 12-month high of $44.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.25 and a beta of 0.27. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $29.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76.

Pilgrim’s Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $4.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.70 billion. Pilgrim’s Pride had a return on equity of 21.70% and a net margin of 2.96%.Pilgrim’s Pride’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.70 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

About Pilgrim’s Pride

Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation is a leading poultry producer in the United States and Mexico and a wholly owned subsidiary of JBS SA Headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, and Pittsburg, Texas, the company specializes in the production, processing and distribution of fresh, frozen and value-added chicken products. Pilgrim’s Pride serves a diverse customer base that includes retail grocery chains, foodservice distributors and restaurant operators across North America and in select international markets.

The company’s vertically integrated operations encompass breeding, hatching, feed milling, processing plants and cold storage facilities.