Teacher Retirement System of Texas Boosts Stock Holdings in The Middleby Co. (NASDAQ:MIDD)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its position in shares of The Middleby Co. (NASDAQ:MIDD - Free Report) by 20.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,269 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 1,773 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas' holdings in Middleby were worth $1,391,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MIDD. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Middleby by 4,494.8% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,266,327 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $171,524,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238,767 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Middleby by 1.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 936,596 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $130,341,000 after purchasing an additional 8,926 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in Middleby by 43.6% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 371,854 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $50,037,000 after buying an additional 112,855 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Middleby by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 348,223 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $47,167,000 after buying an additional 3,832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aviso Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Middleby by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. now owns 317,036 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $42,943,000 after buying an additional 9,180 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.55% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MIDD has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Middleby from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Middleby from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays boosted their price objective 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. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on shares of Middleby from $192.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $160.00 price target (down from $170.00) on shares of Middleby in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Middleby currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $180.86.

Middleby Stock Performance

Shares of Middleby stock traded up $2.03 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $154.76. The company's stock had a trading volume of 383,305 shares, compared to its average volume of 617,099. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $161.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $146.52. 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 cap of $8.30 billion, a PE ratio of 21.35 and a beta of 1.72. The company has a current ratio of 2.81, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The industrial products company reported $2.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.50 by $0.38. Middleby had a net margin of 10.14% and a return on equity of 14.66%. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.69 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.65 earnings per share. Middleby's quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that The Middleby Co. will post 9.11 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Middleby

In related news, Director Chapin Sarah Palisi sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.51, for a total transaction of $81,755.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,111 shares of the company's stock, valued at $999,209.61. This trade represents a 7.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Middleby Company 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.