J. M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of J. M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM – Get Rating) in a report published on Thursday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the stock.

SJM has been the subject of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley raised shares of J. M. Smucker from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and upped their target price for the company from $135.00 to $158.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of J. M. Smucker from $148.00 to $155.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a sell rating and issued a $123.00 target price on shares of J. M. Smucker in a research note on Monday, November 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of J. M. Smucker from $157.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, March 2nd. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of J. M. Smucker from a sell rating to a neutral rating and upped their price target for the company from $132.00 to $155.00 in a report on Friday, February 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $149.70.

J. M. Smucker Trading Down 1.3 %

SJM opened at $151.88 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $16.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.21. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $150.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $148.44. J. M. Smucker has a fifty-two week low of $119.82 and a fifty-two week high of $163.07.

J. M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 28th. The company reported $2.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.13 by $0.08. J. M. Smucker had a net margin of 8.54% and a return on equity of 11.10%. The firm had revenue of $2.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that J. M. Smucker will post 8.68 earnings per share for the current year.

J. M. Smucker Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $1.02 per share. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 9th. J. M. Smucker’s payout ratio is 61.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Richard K. Smucker sold 26,294 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.04, for a total transaction of $3,945,151.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 629,282 shares in the company, valued at $94,417,471.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director Richard K. Smucker sold 26,294 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.04, for a total transaction of $3,945,151.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 629,282 shares in the company, valued at $94,417,471.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark T. Smucker sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.41, for a total transaction of $4,602,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 110,260 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,914,986.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of J. M. Smucker

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in J. M. Smucker by 17.7% in the fourth quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 2,366 shares of the company’s stock valued at $359,000 after acquiring an additional 356 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. lifted its stake in J. M. Smucker by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 5,855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $928,000 after acquiring an additional 667 shares during the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its stake in J. M. Smucker by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,890 shares of the company’s stock valued at $298,000 after acquiring an additional 461 shares during the last quarter. OLD Mission Capital LLC acquired a new stake in J. M. Smucker in the fourth quarter valued at $95,000. Finally, Voya Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in J. M. Smucker by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 38,718 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,135,000 after acquiring an additional 645 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.21% of the company’s stock.

About J. M. Smucker

(Get Rating)

The J. M. Smucker Co engages in the manufacture and marketing of food and beverage products. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Retail Coffee, U.S. Retail Consumer Foods, U.S. Retail Pet Foods, and International and Away From Home. The U. S. Retail Coffee segment includes domestic sales of Folgers, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Café Bustelo branded coffee.