New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 163,181 Shares of Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lessened its stake in Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA) by 14.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 937,637 shares of the company’s stock after selling 163,181 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Corteva were worth $53,408,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Corteva by 2.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,290,086 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,015,914,000 after buying an additional 768,519 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Corteva by 2.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,703,771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,037,505,000 after buying an additional 355,206 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Corteva by 6.1% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 14,788,607 shares of the company’s stock valued at $860,746,000 after buying an additional 856,007 shares during the period. Harris Associates L P raised its position in Corteva by 1.4% in the third quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 14,362,309 shares of the company’s stock worth $844,360,000 after purchasing an additional 200,917 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in Corteva by 1.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,747,791 shares of the company’s stock worth $631,863,000 after purchasing an additional 203,126 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on CTVA. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Corteva from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Corteva from $67.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Corteva from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Corteva from $69.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Corteva from $74.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Corteva has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.73.

Corteva Stock Performance

Shares of Corteva stock opened at $63.65 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The firm has a market cap of $43.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.78. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.71. Corteva, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $50.01 and a fifty-two week high of $66.24.

Corteva (NYSE:CTVA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by ($0.02). Corteva had a net margin of 5.36% and a return on equity of 7.19%. Sell-side analysts predict that Corteva, Inc. will post 2.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Corteva declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, November 19th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 7.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Corteva Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.07%. Corteva’s payout ratio is presently 52.71%.

Corteva Profile

Corteva, Inc operates in the agriculture business. It operates through two segments, Seed and Crop Protection. The Seed segment develops and supplies advanced germplasm and traits that produce optimum yield for farms. It offers trait technologies that enhance resistance to weather, disease, insects, and herbicides used to control weeds, as well as food and nutritional characteristics.