J. M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM) Coverage Initiated at Evercore

Evercore started coverage on shares of J. M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM) in a note issued to investors on Friday. The brokerage set an “outperform” rating and a $117.00 price target on the stock. Evercore’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 16.97% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America raised J. M. Smucker from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. BTIG Research started coverage on shares of J. M. Smucker in a report on Monday, April 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $120.00 price target for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on shares of J. M. Smucker from $145.00 to $134.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of J. M. Smucker from $118.00 to $104.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of J. M. Smucker from $121.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, J. M. Smucker presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $116.59.

J. M. Smucker Stock Performance

NYSE:SJM opened at $100.02 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31. The company has a market capitalization of $10.67 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.25. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $98.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $102.11. J. M. Smucker has a twelve month low of $88.25 and a twelve month high of $119.39.

J. M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.11. J. M. Smucker had a negative net margin of 14.07% and a positive return on equity of 15.94%. The company had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.32 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.61 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that J. M. Smucker will post 9.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of J. M. Smucker

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SJM. UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of J. M. Smucker by 238.7% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,924,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $383,834,000 after buying an additional 2,765,559 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in J. M. Smucker by 15.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,920,718 shares of the company’s stock worth $378,102,000 after acquiring an additional 528,418 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in J. M. Smucker by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,783,272 shares of the company’s stock worth $272,232,000 after acquiring an additional 151,872 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of J. M. Smucker by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,486,596 shares of the company’s stock worth $243,214,000 after purchasing an additional 357,253 shares during the period. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of J. M. Smucker by 13.8% in the 3rd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 1,562,259 shares of the company’s stock worth $169,661,000 after purchasing an additional 188,868 shares during the period. 81.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About J. M. Smucker

The J. M. Smucker Company is a diversified food and beverage manufacturer and marketer known for a portfolio of well-established consumer brands. The company’s main business activities include the production and distribution of fruit spreads, peanut butter, coffee and coffee filters, as well as pet food and pet snacks. Smucker’s core product lines serve both retail and foodservice customers through grocery chains, mass merchandisers, club stores, convenience outlets and e-commerce channels.

Among its leading brands are Smucker’s® fruit spreads, Jif® peanut butter, Folgers® and Dunkin’® coffees, and Café Bustelo® coffee.