Pacer Advisors Inc. Reduces Stake in Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation $PPC

Pacer Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (NASDAQ:PPC) by 99.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,929 shares of the company’s stock after selling 636,184 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Pilgrim’s Pride were worth $186,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,804,210 shares of the company’s stock valued at $226,306,000 after buying an additional 131,482 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 65.1% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 566,247 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,381,000 after acquiring an additional 223,256 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,199,324 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,762,000 after acquiring an additional 70,559 shares during the last quarter. Journey Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 832.5% in the first quarter. Journey Advisory Group LLC now owns 96,764 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,654,000 after acquiring an additional 86,387 shares during the period. Finally, AE Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Pilgrim’s Pride by 164.8% in the fourth quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 60,718 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,367,000 after acquiring an additional 37,784 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 16.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PPC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Stephens set a $40.00 price target on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Barclays raised shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from $37.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pilgrim’s Pride has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.50.

Pilgrim’s Pride Stock Performance

NASDAQ PPC opened at $26.86 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation has a 52 week low of $25.90 and a 52 week high of $50.09. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $28.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $33.48. The company has a market cap of $6.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.68 and a beta of 0.29.

Pilgrim’s Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($0.06). Pilgrim’s Pride had a return on equity of 21.70% and a net margin of 2.96%.The firm had revenue of $4.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.70 earnings per share. Pilgrim’s Pride’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pilgrim’s Pride Company Profile

Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation is a leading poultry producer in the United States and Mexico and a wholly owned subsidiary of JBS SA Headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, and Pittsburg, Texas, the company specializes in the production, processing and distribution of fresh, frozen and value-added chicken products. Pilgrim’s Pride serves a diverse customer base that includes retail grocery chains, foodservice distributors and restaurant operators across North America and in select international markets.

The company’s vertically integrated operations encompass breeding, hatching, feed milling, processing plants and cold storage facilities.