Alliancebernstein L.P. Purchases 23,478 Shares of The Middleby Co. (NASDAQ:MIDD)

Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in shares of The Middleby Co. (NASDAQ:MIDD) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 985,090 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,478 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned approximately 1.83% of Middleby worth $133,430,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Middleby by 41.1% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 398 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Middleby by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 566 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $77,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Middleby by 27.2% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 622 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new position in Middleby in the third quarter valued at about $88,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC raised its stake in Middleby by 73.2% during the fourth quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 710 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MIDD has been the topic of several research reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Middleby from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Middleby from $160.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Middleby from $157.00 to $227.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Middleby from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued 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 equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $180.86.

Middleby Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of MIDD stock opened at $152.73 on Wednesday. The Middleby Co. has a 1-year low of $118.41 and a 1-year high of $182.73. The company has a current ratio of 2.81, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market cap of $8.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.07 and a beta of 1.72. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $161.66 and a 200-day moving average of $146.47.

Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The industrial products company reported $2.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.50 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $996.69 million. Middleby had a net margin of 10.14% and a return on equity of 14.66%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.65 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that The Middleby Co. will post 9.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Middleby news, Director Chapin Sarah Palisi sold 500 shares of Middleby stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.51, for a total value of $81,755.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $999,209.61. The trade was a 7.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Middleby

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.