Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Sells 500 Shares of The Campbell Soup Company (NASDAQ:CPB)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System reduced its holdings in The Campbell Soup Company (NASDAQ:CPB) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,600 shares of the company’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Campbell Soup were worth $444,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Campbell Soup during the third quarter worth about $34,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Campbell Soup by 38.7% during the third quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 6,582 shares of the company’s stock worth $322,000 after buying an additional 1,835 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of Campbell Soup by 4.3% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 487,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,870,000 after buying an additional 19,934 shares in the last quarter. Venture Visionary Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Campbell Soup by 32.4% during the third quarter. Venture Visionary Partners LLC now owns 7,598 shares of the company’s stock worth $372,000 after buying an additional 1,860 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in shares of Campbell Soup by 19.6% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 16,599 shares of the company’s stock worth $812,000 after buying an additional 2,719 shares in the last quarter. 52.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CPB has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Campbell Soup from $45.00 to $43.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $51.00 price target on shares of Campbell Soup in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 price target on shares of Campbell Soup in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Campbell Soup from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Campbell Soup in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $50.17.

Insider Activity at Campbell Soup

In other Campbell Soup news, EVP Anthony Sanzio sold 2,000 shares of Campbell Soup stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.90, for a total transaction of $83,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $693,486.90. The trade was a 10.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 20.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Campbell Soup Price Performance

Campbell Soup stock opened at $38.64 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $39.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $44.99. The Campbell Soup Company has a one year low of $36.92 and a one year high of $52.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.50. The firm has a market cap of $11.52 billion, a PE ratio of 21.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.19.

Campbell Soup (NASDAQ:CPB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, December 3rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.02. Campbell Soup had a return on equity of 23.79% and a net margin of 5.57%. As a group, research analysts expect that The Campbell Soup Company will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Campbell Soup Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This is an increase from Campbell Soup’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.04%. Campbell Soup’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 85.25%.

Campbell Soup Profile

Campbell Soup Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets food and beverage products in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Meals & Beverages and Snacks segments. The Meals & Beverages segment engages in the retail and foodservice businesses in the United States and Canada.