Pilgrim’s Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) Hits New 12-Month High on Analyst Upgrade

Pilgrim’s Pride Co. (NASDAQ:PPC)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday after Argus raised their price target on the stock from $41.00 to $50.00. Argus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Pilgrim’s Pride traded as high as $40.21 and last traded at $40.05, with a volume of 226636 shares. The stock had previously closed at $39.47.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Pilgrim’s Pride from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. StockNews.com raised shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $38.00 price objective (up from $35.00) on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.20.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PPC. Jones Financial Companies Lllp bought a new position in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. ORG Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride during the 1st quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 746.4% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,752 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 1,545 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 16.64% of the company’s stock.

Pilgrim’s Pride Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.83. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $37.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $33.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 0.78.

Pilgrim’s Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $4.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.45 billion. Pilgrim’s Pride had a net margin of 2.80% and a return on equity of 17.35%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.08 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Pilgrim’s Pride Co. will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Pilgrim’s Pride Company Profile

Pilgrim's Pride Corporation produces, processes, markets, and distributes fresh, frozen, and value-added chicken and pork products to retailers, distributors, and foodservice operators. The company offers fresh products, including refrigerated whole or cut-up chicken, selected chicken parts that are either marinated or non-marinated, primary pork cuts, added value pork, and pork ribs; and prepared products, which include fully cooked, ready-to-cook and individually frozen chicken parts, strips, nuggets and patties, processed sausages, bacon, smoked meat, gammon joints, pre-packed meats, sandwich and deli counter meats and meat balls.