Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC)

Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders purchased 82,130 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 189% compared to the typical daily volume of 28,427 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

KHC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Kraft Heinz from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Kraft Heinz from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Kraft Heinz from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $25.00 to $21.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Kraft Heinz from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Kraft Heinz from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $23.62.

Insider Activity at Kraft Heinz

In other news, insider Diana Frost sold 18,502 shares of Kraft Heinz stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.05, for a total value of $426,471.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 102,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,366,474.35. The trade was a 15.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of KHC. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Kraft Heinz in the first quarter worth $27,000. Jessup Wealth Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Kraft Heinz during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Reflection Asset Management purchased a new stake in Kraft Heinz during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Hara Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Kraft Heinz during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Finally, DV Equities LLC acquired a new stake in Kraft Heinz in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.17% of the company’s stock.

Kraft Heinz Price Performance

Shares of Kraft Heinz stock opened at $25.13 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $25.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.91. Kraft Heinz has a twelve month low of $21.03 and a twelve month high of $28.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.80 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.79 and a beta of 0.08.

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.18 billion. Kraft Heinz had a positive return on equity of 7.10% and a negative net margin of 13.64%.The firm’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.69 earnings per share. Kraft Heinz has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.030-2.090 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Kraft Heinz will post 2.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Kraft Heinz Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Kraft Heinz’s dividend payout ratio is -55.94%.

About Kraft Heinz

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.