Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Buys 41,563 Shares of Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,267,200 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 41,563 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.27% of Conagra Brands worth $35,165,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Conagra Brands by 7.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,484,277 shares of the company’s stock worth $796,229,000 after acquiring an additional 1,691,945 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Conagra Brands by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 12,285,579 shares of the company’s stock worth $341,048,000 after acquiring an additional 618,096 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Conagra Brands by 1.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,514,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $373,180,000 after acquiring an additional 196,100 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Conagra Brands by 21,015.0% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 10,654,828 shares of the company’s stock worth $346,495,000 after acquiring an additional 10,604,367 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Conagra Brands by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 6,290,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $204,571,000 after buying an additional 122,590 shares during the period. 83.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CAG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Conagra Brands from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Conagra Brands from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Conagra Brands from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Conagra Brands from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Conagra Brands from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.33.

Conagra Brands Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE CAG opened at $24.90 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $11.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.28. Conagra Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $24.18 and a 52-week high of $33.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.70. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $26.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.82.

Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.15 billion. Conagra Brands had a net margin of 4.13% and a return on equity of 13.76%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Conagra Brands, Inc. will post 2.46 EPS for the current year.

Conagra Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, January 27th will be issued a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, January 27th. Conagra Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 137.26%.

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.