Ambev (NYSE:ABEV) Insider Sells $464,612.50 in Stock

Ambev S.A. (NYSE:ABEV) insider Paulo Andre Zagman sold 136,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.41, for a total transaction of $464,612.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 230,535 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $786,124.35. This represents a 37.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Ambev Price Performance

ABEV stock traded up $0.12 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $3.23. The company had a trading volume of 31,909,123 shares, compared to its average volume of 26,187,105. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.78. Ambev S.A. has a 1 year low of $2.10 and a 1 year high of $3.45. The company has a market capitalization of $50.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $3.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $2.87.

Ambev (NYSE:ABEV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05. Ambev had a net margin of 17.69% and a return on equity of 16.63%. The business had revenue of $4.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.38 billion. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ambev S.A. will post 0.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ambev Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 11th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 24th will be paid a $0.0092 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 24th. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Ambev’s dividend payout ratio is 10.53%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ambev

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GQG Partners LLC raised its holdings in Ambev by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 172,969,655 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,235,000 after buying an additional 14,468,963 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Ambev by 291.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 45,462,628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,293,000 after buying an additional 33,842,540 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in Ambev by 9.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 27,505,192 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,288,000 after buying an additional 2,479,310 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Ambev by 6.5% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 27,354,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,875,000 after buying an additional 1,674,900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brandes Investment Partners LP raised its holdings in Ambev by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 22,600,124 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,822,000 after buying an additional 874,657 shares during the last quarter. 8.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ABEV. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ambev from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Ambev from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ambev from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Ambev from $2.65 to $2.90 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ambev has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $3.09.

Ambev Company Profile

Ambev (NYSE: ABEV) is a Brazilian-based beverage company that produces, distributes and markets a broad portfolio of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. The company’s core business centers on brewing and selling beer, alongside a range of soft drinks, bottled water, energy drinks and other malt-based beverages. Headquartered in São Paulo, Ambev operates an integrated value chain that covers manufacturing, packaging, logistics and commercial sales to retail, on-premise and institutional customers.

The company traces its origins to the 1999 merger of two historic Brazilian breweries, and later became part of the broader global brewing group through subsequent industry consolidations.