Smithfield Foods (NASDAQ:SFD) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Research analysts at Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Smithfield Foods (NASDAQ:SFD - Get Free Report) in a report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm set an "overweight" rating and a $28.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley's target price suggests a potential upside of 38.41% from the stock's current price.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Barclays initiated coverage on Smithfield Foods in a research note on Monday, February 24th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $28.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America assumed coverage on Smithfield Foods in a research report on Monday, February 24th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $28.00 target price on the stock. HSBC began coverage on shares of Smithfield Foods in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. They set a "buy" rating and a $29.00 price target for the company. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Smithfield Foods in a research note on Monday, February 24th. They set a "buy" rating and a $27.00 price objective for the company. Finally, BNP Paribas started coverage on shares of Smithfield Foods in a research note on Monday, February 24th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $23.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $27.86.

Smithfield Foods Stock Performance

SFD stock traded up $0.12 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $20.23. The company had a trading volume of 546,012 shares, compared to its average volume of 851,657. The firm has a market cap of $7.95 billion and a P/E ratio of 8.91. Smithfield Foods has a twelve month low of $18.43 and a twelve month high of $22.03. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.44.

Smithfield Foods (NASDAQ:SFD - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 25th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $3.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.91 billion.

Insider Buying and Selling at Smithfield Foods

In other Smithfield Foods news, major shareholder Group Ltd/Adr Wh sold 13,043,479 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.00, for a total transaction of $260,869,580.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 367,025,753 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,340,515,060. This represents a 3.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tennille J. Checkovich acquired 2,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $20.00 per share, with a total value of $40,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $240,000. This represents a 20.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders bought 59,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,180,000. Corporate insiders own 1.79% of the company's stock.

Smithfield Foods Company Profile

Smithfield Foods, Inc produces and markets a variety of fresh meat and packaged meats products both domestically and internationally. The Company operates in four segments: Pork, Hog Production, International and Corporate, each of which consists of a number of subsidiaries, joint ventures and other investments.