Raymond James Financial Inc. Buys New Position in Kellanova (NYSE:K)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Kellanova (NYSE:K) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 262,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,282,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.08% of Kellanova as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of K. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Kellanova by 5.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,725,420 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,188,489,000 after acquiring an additional 731,273 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Kellanova by 3.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,725,532 shares of the company’s stock worth $541,052,000 after acquiring an additional 196,564 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Kellanova by 134.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,800,363 shares of the company’s stock worth $145,309,000 after acquiring an additional 1,033,383 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Kellanova by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,680,912 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,103,000 after acquiring an additional 50,303 shares during the period. Finally, Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP lifted its holdings in Kellanova by 63.8% during the third quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 1,624,222 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,091,000 after acquiring an additional 632,510 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

K has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Kellanova from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $83.50 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com started coverage on Kellanova in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $77.96.

Kellanova Stock Performance

Shares of K opened at $82.22 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $81.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.81. Kellanova has a 52-week low of $52.53 and a 52-week high of $83.22.

Kellanova (NYSE:K) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.61. Kellanova had a return on equity of 37.25% and a net margin of 10.53%. Research analysts forecast that Kellanova will post 3.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kellanova Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.77%. Kellanova’s dividend payout ratio is currently 58.91%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kellanova news, major shareholder Kellogg W. K. Foundation Trust sold 114,583 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.64, for a total value of $9,239,973.12. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 48,878,693 shares in the company, valued at $3,941,577,803.52. This represents a 0.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 1,260,413 shares of company stock worth $103,099,492 in the last ninety days. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Kellanova Profile

Kellanova, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets snacks and convenience foods in North America, Europe, Latin America, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Australia, and Africa. Its principal products include crackers, crisps, savory snacks, toaster pastries, cereal bars, granola bars and bites, ready-to-eat cereals, frozen waffles, veggie foods, and noodles.