BRF (NYSE:BRFS) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

BRF (NYSE:BRFS) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Thursday.

Separately, Citigroup raised shares of BRF from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.70.

BRF Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BRFS opened at $3.08 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $3.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $4.18. BRF has a fifty-two week low of $2.96 and a fifty-two week high of $4.87. The firm has a market cap of $3.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.16, a P/E/G ratio of 0.19 and a beta of 1.86.

BRF (NYSE:BRFS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.11). BRF had a return on equity of 19.66% and a net margin of 6.52%. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.72 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BRF will post 0.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BRF

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BRFS. Creative Planning raised its stake in shares of BRF by 15.4% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 77,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $339,000 after acquiring an additional 10,361 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of BRF by 39.9% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 17,397 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 4,966 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of BRF by 127.1% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,871 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 8,882 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BRF in the third quarter valued at $78,000. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of BRF by 97.9% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 241,221 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,054,000 after acquiring an additional 119,346 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

About BRF

BRF SA raises, produces, and slaughters poultry and pork for processing, production, and sale of fresh meat, processed products, pasta, margarine, pet food, and other products. The company provides frozen whole and cut chicken, frozen pork, and turkey, and halal products for Islamic markets; processed foods, such as marinated, frozen, seasoned whole, and cut chicken, roosters, sausages, ham products, bologna, frankfurters, salamis, bacons, cold meats, and other smoked products; and hamburgers, steaks, breaded meat products, kibbeh, and meatballs, as well as chicken sausages, hot dogs, and chicken bologna.