Kraft Heinz Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:KHC)

Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors purchased 53,742 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 69% compared to the typical daily volume of 31,708 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Kraft Heinz from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $23.00 price objective on Kraft Heinz in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $23.00 target price on shares of Kraft Heinz in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Kraft Heinz in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Zacks Research cut Kraft Heinz from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Kraft Heinz presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $23.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kraft Heinz news, insider Cory Onell sold 9,045 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.61, for a total transaction of $222,597.45. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 202,454 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,982,392.94. This trade represents a 4.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.35% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of KHC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Kraft Heinz by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 102,933,219 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,496,131,000 after purchasing an additional 616,283 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Kraft Heinz by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 19,725,662 shares of the company’s stock valued at $478,347,000 after buying an additional 1,870,310 shares during the period. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its holdings in shares of Kraft Heinz by 3,034.1% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 16,477,002 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,957,000 after buying an additional 15,951,271 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Kraft Heinz by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 13,801,453 shares of the company’s stock worth $336,134,000 after buying an additional 106,970 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Kraft Heinz during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $332,382,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.17% of the company’s stock.

Kraft Heinz Price Performance

KHC stock traded up $0.58 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $22.59. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 13,652,412 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,413,730. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company’s 50 day moving average is $23.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.13. Kraft Heinz has a fifty-two week low of $21.03 and a fifty-two week high of $30.42. The stock has a market cap of $26.79 billion, a PE ratio of -4.57 and a beta of 0.07.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.06. Kraft Heinz had a positive return on equity of 7.07% and a negative net margin of 23.44%.The business had revenue of $6.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Kraft Heinz has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.980-2.100 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Kraft Heinz will post 2.68 EPS for the current year.

Kraft Heinz Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 6th were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 6th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.1%. Kraft Heinz’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -32.39%.

Kraft Heinz Company Profile

The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ: KHC) is a global food and beverage company formed in 2015 through the merger of Kraft Foods Group and H.J. Heinz Company. The combination created one of the largest packaged-food companies in the world, built around well-known consumer brands. The merger was supported by major investors and established a multi-national platform for branded food products.

Kraft Heinz develops, manufactures, markets and distributes a broad portfolio of branded packaged foods and condiments.