BRF (NYSE:BRFS) Downgraded by StockNews.com to Buy

StockNews.com lowered shares of BRF (NYSE:BRFS) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Thursday morning.

Separately, Citigroup upgraded shares of BRF from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.70.

BRF Stock Performance

Shares of BRFS opened at $3.14 on Thursday. BRF has a 52-week low of $2.96 and a 52-week high of $4.87. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $3.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.19 and a beta of 1.86.

BRF (NYSE:BRFS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.72 billion. BRF had a return on equity of 19.66% and a net margin of 6.52%. Research analysts forecast that BRF will post 0.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BRF Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 18th were paid a $0.0217 dividend. This represents a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 18th. BRF’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.60%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BRF

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. TD Private Client Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BRF during the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in BRF in the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. PFG Investments LLC purchased a new stake in BRF during the fourth quarter valued at about $51,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in BRF during the fourth quarter worth about $55,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in BRF by 127.1% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,871 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 8,882 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

About BRF

BRF SA raises, produces, and slaughters poultry and pork for processing, production, and sale of fresh meat, processed products, pasta, margarine, pet food, and other products. The company provides frozen whole and cut chicken, frozen pork, and turkey, and halal products for Islamic markets; processed foods, such as marinated, frozen, seasoned whole, and cut chicken, roosters, sausages, ham products, bologna, frankfurters, salamis, bacons, cold meats, and other smoked products; and hamburgers, steaks, breaded meat products, kibbeh, and meatballs, as well as chicken sausages, hot dogs, and chicken bologna.