Brighton Jones LLC Buys 1,067 Shares of Sysco Co. (NYSE:SYY)

Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Sysco Co. (NYSE:SYY) by 0.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 119,303 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,067 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Sysco were worth $8,725,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Investment House LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Sysco by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Investment House LLC now owns 43,411 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,175,000 after purchasing an additional 759 shares in the last quarter. Choreo LLC lifted its holdings in Sysco by 83.0% during the fourth quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 9,447 shares of the company’s stock worth $691,000 after acquiring an additional 4,285 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. lifted its holdings in Sysco by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 6,610 shares of the company’s stock worth $483,000 after acquiring an additional 470 shares during the period. Intellectus Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Sysco by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC now owns 14,520 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,062,000 after acquiring an additional 807 shares during the period. Finally, Transcend Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Sysco during the fourth quarter worth $212,000. Institutional investors own 83.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Sysco

In other Sysco news, CAO Neil Russell sold 1,722 shares of Sysco stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $137,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,926,560. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Sysco Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SYY traded down $2.90 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $74.32. The company had a trading volume of 7,972,734 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,948,538. The company has a market capitalization of $37.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.15. Sysco Co. has a 1 year low of $62.24 and a 1 year high of $82.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $79.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $75.03.

Sysco (NYSE:SYY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $19.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.32 billion. Sysco had a return on equity of 105.22% and a net margin of 2.69%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.80 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Sysco Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Sysco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.51 per share. This is a positive change from Sysco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.74%. Sysco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.90%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on SYY. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Sysco from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Sysco from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Stephens raised their target price on Sysco from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays raised their target price on Sysco from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Sysco from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.38.

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.