Calavo Growers (NASDAQ:CVGW) Lowered to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Calavo Growers (NASDAQ:CVGW) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Friday.

Separately, Lake Street Capital lowered their price objective on shares of Calavo Growers from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th.

Calavo Growers Stock Performance

NASDAQ CVGW opened at $24.06 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $429.16 million, a P/E ratio of -401.00 and a beta of 0.57. Calavo Growers has a 52-week low of $20.30 and a 52-week high of $30.58. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $23.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $25.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02.

Calavo Growers (NASDAQ:CVGW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by ($0.25). The company had revenue of $169.96 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.99 million. Calavo Growers had a positive return on equity of 9.66% and a negative net margin of 0.16%. The firm’s revenue was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.33) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Calavo Growers will post 1.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Calavo Growers Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 29th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.33%. Calavo Growers’s dividend payout ratio is currently 148.15%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Calavo Growers

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CVGW. Jane Street Group LLC increased its position in shares of Calavo Growers by 215.5% in the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 262,626 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,493,000 after buying an additional 179,395 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Calavo Growers by 26.8% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 445,817 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,368,000 after acquiring an additional 94,221 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Calavo Growers by 221.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 123,841 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,533,000 after acquiring an additional 85,272 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in Calavo Growers by 104.7% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 150,960 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,849,000 after purchasing an additional 77,220 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its stake in Calavo Growers by 363.0% in the 4th quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 78,538 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,003,000 after purchasing an additional 61,574 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.30% of the company’s stock.

Calavo Growers Company Profile

Calavo Growers, Inc markets and distributes avocados, prepared avocados, and other perishable foods to retail grocery and foodservice customers, club stores, mass merchandisers, food distributors, and wholesale customers worldwide. It operates through Grown and Prepared segments. The Grown segment distributes tomatoes and papayas; and procures avocados grown in California, Mexico, Peru, and Colombia.