VELA Investment Management LLC Sells 28,341 Shares of The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC)

VELA Investment Management LLC lowered its position in The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) by 64.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,429 shares of the company’s stock after selling 28,341 shares during the quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Kraft Heinz were worth $474,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of KHC. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Kraft Heinz in the third quarter worth approximately $411,304,000. State Street Corp boosted its position in Kraft Heinz by 16.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 44,400,402 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,558,898,000 after acquiring an additional 6,366,732 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Kraft Heinz by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,150,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $669,821,000 after acquiring an additional 1,944,019 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Kraft Heinz by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,813,268 shares of the company’s stock valued at $269,906,000 after acquiring an additional 1,238,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Kraft Heinz by 1,139.3% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,273,579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,112,000 after acquiring an additional 1,170,814 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on KHC. Barclays dropped their target price on Kraft Heinz from $33.00 to $29.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Bank of America cut Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $36.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Kraft Heinz from $37.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $35.00 target price (down previously from $38.00) on shares of Kraft Heinz in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Citigroup lowered Kraft Heinz from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $34.00 to $28.00 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have given a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Kraft Heinz has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.86.

Kraft Heinz Stock Performance

Shares of KHC stock opened at $30.65 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The business has a fifty day moving average of $29.77 and a 200 day moving average of $32.45. The Kraft Heinz Company has a 1 year low of $27.25 and a 1 year high of $38.96.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.06. Kraft Heinz had a return on equity of 7.58% and a net margin of 10.62%. As a group, research analysts expect that The Kraft Heinz Company will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Kraft Heinz Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.22%. Kraft Heinz’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.80%.

Kraft Heinz Profile

The Kraft Heinz Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets food and beverage products in North America and internationally. Its products include condiments and sauces, cheese and dairy products, meals, meats, refreshment beverages, coffee, and other grocery products under the Kraft, Oscar Mayer, Heinz, Philadelphia, Lunchables, Velveeta, Ore-Ida, Maxwell House, Kool-Aid, Jell-O, Heinz, ABC, Master, Quero, Kraft, Golden Circle, Wattie's, Pudliszki, and Plasmon brands.