New York State Teachers Retirement System Sells 15,268 Shares of Sysco Co. (NYSE:SYY)

New York State Teachers Retirement System reduced its stake in shares of Sysco Co. (NYSE:SYY - Free Report) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 465,502 shares of the company's stock after selling 15,268 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.09% of Sysco worth $36,337,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. grew its stake in Sysco by 1,240.0% during the third quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 335 shares of the company's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares during the period. TruNorth Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Sysco in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Canoe Financial LP acquired a new position in shares of Sysco during the third quarter valued at about $38,000. Fairscale Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sysco in the 2nd quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Sysco in the 1st quarter valued at about $45,000. 83.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on SYY. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Sysco from $87.00 to $82.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Sysco from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Sysco from $91.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Sysco from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Sysco from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sysco currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $85.77.

Sysco Stock Performance

SYY stock traded up $0.08 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $75.03. The company had a trading volume of 2,633,825 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,170,686. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.38, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.26. The firm has a market cap of $36.86 billion, a PE ratio of 19.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.20. Sysco Co. has a 12 month low of $65.19 and a 12 month high of $82.89. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $76.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $74.75.

Sysco (NYSE:SYY - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.13 by ($0.04). Sysco had a return on equity of 101.04% and a net margin of 2.44%. The company had revenue of $20.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.47 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.07 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Sysco Co. will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sysco Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a dividend of $0.51 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. Sysco's payout ratio is 52.44%.

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.