Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD) Upgraded to Neutral at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD) from an underweight rating to a neutral rating in a research note published on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $125.00 price objective on the industrial products company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $140.00.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on MIDD. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Middleby from $162.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Middleby from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Middleby in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Middleby from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, July 20th. Finally, Wolfe Research set a $163.00 target price on shares of Middleby and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Middleby currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $162.29.

Middleby Stock Performance

NASDAQ MIDD traded up $3.14 on Friday, reaching $123.20. 1,066,614 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 860,207. Middleby has a fifty-two week low of $114.57 and a fifty-two week high of $182.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 2.57. The firm has a market cap of $6.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.67 and a beta of 1.57. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $133.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $138.71.

Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The industrial products company reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.34. The business had revenue of $982.13 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $961.21 million. Middleby had a return on equity of 14.14% and a net margin of 11.06%.The company’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. Middleby has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.990-9.140 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 2.190-2.340 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Middleby will post 9.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MIDD. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Middleby by 59.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,029,484 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $460,422,000 after purchasing an additional 1,133,931 shares during the last quarter. SG Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Middleby during the third quarter worth about $55,260,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Middleby during the first quarter worth about $29,733,000. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its stake in Middleby by 32.5% during the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 578,496 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $87,920,000 after acquiring an additional 141,769 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Middleby in the 2nd quarter valued at about $19,285,000. 98.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Middleby

The Middleby Corporation designs, markets, manufactures, distributes, and services foodservice, food processing, and residential kitchen equipment worldwide. Its Commercial Foodservice Equipment Group segment offers conveyor, combi, convection, baking, proofing, deck, speed cooking, and hydrovection ovens; ranges, fryers, and rethermalizers; steam cooking, food warming, catering, induction cooking, and countertop cooking equipment; heated cabinets, charbroilers, ventless cooking systems, kitchen ventilation, toasters, griddles, charcoal grills, professional mixers, stainless steel fabrication, custom millwork, professional refrigerators, blast chillers, cold rooms, ice machines, and freezers; soft serve ice cream, coffee and beverage dispensing, home and professional craft brewing equipment; and fry dispensers, bottle filling and canning equipment, IoT solutions, and controls development and manufacturing.