Earnest Partners LLC Buys 47,443 Shares of The Middleby Co. (NASDAQ:MIDD)

Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of The Middleby Co. (NASDAQ:MIDD - Free Report) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,311,966 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 47,443 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC owned approximately 2.44% of Middleby worth $177,706,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Middleby during the third quarter worth about $639,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Middleby by 27.2% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 622 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $84,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Middleby during the fourth quarter worth about $200,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Middleby by 4,494.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,266,327 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $171,524,000 after acquiring an additional 1,238,767 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Middleby by 41.1% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 398 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.55% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Middleby from $160.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Middleby from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Middleby from $157.00 to $227.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Middleby from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Middleby from $185.00 to $175.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $179.43.

Middleby Trading Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ:MIDD traded up $2.20 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $132.78. 770,095 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 686,603. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $146.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $145.52. The company has a current ratio of 2.81, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The Middleby Co. has a fifty-two week low of $118.41 and a fifty-two week high of $182.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.31 and a beta of 1.44.

Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The industrial products company reported $2.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.50 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $996.69 million. Middleby had a net margin of 10.14% and a return on equity of 14.66%. The firm's revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.65 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that The Middleby Co. will post 9.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Middleby

In other news, Director Chapin Sarah Palisi sold 500 shares of Middleby stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.51, for a total value of $81,755.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,111 shares in the company, valued at $999,209.61. The trade was a 7.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 6.18% of the company's stock.

Middleby Profile

The Middleby Corporation designs, markets, manufactures, distributes, and services foodservice, food processing, and residential kitchen equipment worldwide. Its Commercial Foodservice Equipment Group segment offers conveyor, combi, convection, baking, proofing, deck, speed cooking, and hydrovection ovens; ranges, fryers, and rethermalizers; steam cooking, food warming, catering, induction cooking, and countertop cooking equipment; heated cabinets, charbroilers, ventless cooking systems, kitchen ventilation, toasters, griddles, charcoal grills, professional mixers, stainless steel fabrication, custom millwork, professional refrigerators, blast chillers, cold rooms, ice machines, and freezers; soft serve ice cream, coffee and beverage dispensing, home and professional craft brewing equipment; and fry dispensers, bottle filling and canning equipment, IoT solutions, and controls development and manufacturing.