Sysco (NYSE:SYY) Cut to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Sysco (NYSE:SYY) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday.

SYY has been the topic of several other research reports. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Sysco in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Sysco from $85.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Melius Research raised Sysco to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Sysco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Sysco from $91.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sysco presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.77.

Sysco Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:SYY opened at $71.12 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $34.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.28, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.66. Sysco has a 12-month low of $69.03 and a 12-month high of $82.33. The business’s 50 day moving average is $73.10 and its 200 day moving average is $75.34.

Sysco (NYSE:SYY) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.93. Sysco had a return on equity of 106.30% and a net margin of 2.40%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.89 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Sysco will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sysco Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.51 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.87%. Sysco’s payout ratio is 52.44%.

Insider Activity at Sysco

In related news, EVP Greg D. Bertrand sold 48,027 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.00, for a total transaction of $3,698,079.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 56,304 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,335,408. The trade was a 46.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sysco

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SYY. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Sysco by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,519,424 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,703,775,000 after buying an additional 429,711 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Sysco by 11.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,294,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,130,617,000 after buying an additional 2,721,449 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Sysco by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 16,907,541 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,292,751,000 after buying an additional 851,441 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its position in Sysco by 143.7% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 12,184,114 shares of the company’s stock worth $930,296,000 after buying an additional 7,184,754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Sysco by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,868,965 shares of the company’s stock worth $905,120,000 after buying an additional 233,885 shares in the last quarter. 83.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Sysco

Sysco Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the marketing and distribution of various food and related products to the foodservice or food-away-from-home industry in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and internationally. It operates through U.S. Foodservice Operations, International Foodservice Operations, SYGMA, and Other segments.