Meritage Portfolio Management Lowers Stock Holdings in Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG)

Meritage Portfolio Management trimmed its holdings in shares of Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 142,808 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,828 shares during the quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Conagra Brands were worth $4,093,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Conagra Brands by 37.1% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,675,187 shares of the company’s stock valued at $265,294,000 after buying an additional 2,619,372 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Conagra Brands by 14.0% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 14,171,413 shares of the company’s stock worth $388,580,000 after buying an additional 1,737,380 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Conagra Brands by 75.7% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,748,848 shares of the company’s stock valued at $102,792,000 after purchasing an additional 1,614,986 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in shares of Conagra Brands by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 8,426,955 shares of the company’s stock worth $241,517,000 after purchasing an additional 1,330,249 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its position in shares of Conagra Brands by 401.4% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,519,450 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,663,000 after purchasing an additional 1,216,389 shares in the last quarter. 83.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Conagra Brands from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Conagra Brands from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Conagra Brands from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Conagra Brands from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Conagra Brands from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $33.14.

Conagra Brands Price Performance

CAG stock traded down $0.30 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $31.27. 4,276,619 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,110,162. Conagra Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $25.16 and a one year high of $38.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.63. The company has a market cap of $14.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.86, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.42.

Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 4th. The company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.05. Conagra Brands had a return on equity of 14.25% and a net margin of 7.86%. The business had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 earnings per share. Conagra Brands’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Conagra Brands, Inc. will post 2.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Conagra Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. Conagra Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 70.35%.

About Conagra Brands

Conagra Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer packaged goods food company primarily in the United States. The company operates through Grocery & Snacks, Refrigerated & Frozen, International, and Foodservice segments. The Grocery & Snacks segment primarily offers shelf stable food products through various retail channels.