Kestra Investment Management LLC Buys Shares of 884 Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA)

Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Corteva by 2.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,290,086 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,015,914,000 after purchasing an additional 768,519 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Corteva by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,703,771 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,037,505,000 after purchasing an additional 355,206 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Corteva by 6.1% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 14,788,607 shares of the company’s stock worth $860,746,000 after purchasing an additional 856,007 shares in the last quarter. Harris Associates L P grew its holdings in shares of Corteva by 1.4% during the third quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 14,362,309 shares of the company’s stock worth $844,360,000 after purchasing an additional 200,917 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Corteva by 1.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,747,791 shares of the company’s stock worth $631,863,000 after purchasing an additional 203,126 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on CTVA. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Corteva from $69.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America upped their target price on Corteva from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Corteva from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Corteva from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Corteva from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $67.73.

Corteva Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of Corteva stock opened at $62.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.45. Corteva, Inc. has a 52-week low of $50.01 and a 52-week high of $66.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.78. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $60.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.82.

Corteva (NYSE:CTVA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.02). Corteva had a return on equity of 7.19% and a net margin of 5.36%. Equities research analysts forecast that Corteva, Inc. will post 2.96 EPS for the current year.

Corteva announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, November 19th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 7.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Corteva Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Corteva’s payout ratio is 52.71%.

Corteva Company Profile

Corteva, Inc operates in the agriculture business. It operates through two segments, Seed and Crop Protection. The Seed segment develops and supplies advanced germplasm and traits that produce optimum yield for farms. It offers trait technologies that enhance resistance to weather, disease, insects, and herbicides used to control weeds, as well as food and nutritional characteristics.