Great Lakes Advisors LLC Buys 1,662,357 Shares of Ambev S.A. $ABEV

Great Lakes Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ambev S.A. (NYSE:ABEV) by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,346,968 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,662,357 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC owned about 0.06% of Ambev worth $20,844,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in Ambev by 12.0% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 36,058,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,410,000 after buying an additional 3,864,844 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Ambev by 9.9% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 27,505,192 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,288,000 after acquiring an additional 2,479,310 shares during the period. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its holdings in shares of Ambev by 74.8% in the 2nd quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 13,409,316 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,624,000 after purchasing an additional 5,740,155 shares in the last quarter. Foundation Resource Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ambev by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Foundation Resource Management Inc. now owns 6,883,476 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,350,000 after purchasing an additional 57,129 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ambev by 13.2% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,000,107 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,650,000 after purchasing an additional 582,153 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 8.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $2.88 price objective on shares of Ambev in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Ambev in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $2.53.

Ambev Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of ABEV opened at $2.84 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 0.86. Ambev S.A. has a 1-year low of $1.80 and a 1-year high of $2.87. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $2.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.37. The stock has a market cap of $44.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.67.

Ambev (NYSE:ABEV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.04. Ambev had a net margin of 17.90% and a return on equity of 15.81%. The business had revenue of $3.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.97 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Ambev S.A. will post 0.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ambev Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a special dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.049 per share. This represents a yield of 1,465.0%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 22nd. Ambev’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 183.33%.

Ambev Company Profile

Ambev (NYSE: ABEV) is a Brazilian-based beverage company that produces, distributes and markets a broad portfolio of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. The company’s core business centers on brewing and selling beer, alongside a range of soft drinks, bottled water, energy drinks and other malt-based beverages. Headquartered in São Paulo, Ambev operates an integrated value chain that covers manufacturing, packaging, logistics and commercial sales to retail, on-premise and institutional customers.

The company traces its origins to the 1999 merger of two historic Brazilian breweries, and later became part of the broader global brewing group through subsequent industry consolidations.