Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC Sells 522 Shares of Sysco Co. (NYSE:SYY)

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC lessened its holdings in Sysco Co. (NYSE:SYY) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 177,716 shares of the company’s stock after selling 522 shares during the quarter. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Sysco were worth $12,996,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in SYY. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its holdings in Sysco by 74.0% in the 4th quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 374 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Sysco during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Sysco in the third quarter worth about $38,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Sysco in the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, Milestone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Sysco in the third quarter worth about $40,000. 83.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on SYY shares. Stephens increased 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. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Sysco from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Sysco from $92.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Sysco from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Sysco from $91.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Sysco presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.56.

Sysco Stock Up 1.5 %

NYSE SYY traded up $1.11 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $75.36. The stock had a trading volume of 2,709,679 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,778,819. The stock has a market cap of $37.53 billion, a PE ratio of 18.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.16. Sysco Co. has a 1 year low of $62.24 and a 1 year high of $82.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.77, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $78.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.31.

Sysco (NYSE:SYY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.01. Sysco had a return on equity of 99.88% and a net margin of 2.66%. The firm had revenue of $19.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.74 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Sysco Co. will post 4.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Sysco Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.51 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. This is a boost from Sysco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Sysco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Neil Russell sold 1,722 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $137,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,926,560. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Sysco Company Profile

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.