Cerity Partners LLC Increases Stock Position in Kellanova (NYSE:K)

Cerity Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Kellanova (NYSE:K) by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 197,355 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,685 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC owned approximately 0.06% of Kellanova worth $15,928,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Kellanova by 11.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,616,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $150,909,000 after acquiring an additional 277,171 shares during the period. Yacktman Asset Management LP raised its holdings in shares of Kellanova by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Yacktman Asset Management LP now owns 2,141,913 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,546,000 after purchasing an additional 10,510 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in Kellanova by 766.5% in the second quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 1,881,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,532,000 after purchasing an additional 1,664,461 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Kellanova by 2.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,630,609 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,606,000 after buying an additional 35,268 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maverick Capital Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Kellanova in the second quarter valued at $88,065,000. 83.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on K. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Kellanova from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $83.50 in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Kellanova from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Kellanova from $76.00 to $83.50 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America raised shares of Kellanova from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $62.00 to $70.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Kellanova from $76.00 to $83.50 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.35.

Kellanova Price Performance

Shares of K stock opened at $81.11 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.77. The firm has a market cap of $27.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.39. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $80.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $70.85. Kellanova has a fifty-two week low of $51.02 and a fifty-two week high of $81.34.

Kellanova (NYSE:K) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.06. Kellanova had a net margin of 7.85% and a return on equity of 37.05%. The business had revenue of $3.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Kellanova will post 3.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Kellanova Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. Kellanova’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 78.35%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Kellogg W. K. Foundation Trust sold 77,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.62, for a total value of $6,272,236.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,597,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,079,165,451.56. This represents a 0.15 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold 1,109,047 shares of company stock worth $89,483,556 over the last three months. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

About Kellanova

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.