Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (NASDAQ:KDP) Short Interest Up 8.4% in March

Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (NASDAQ:KDP) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 13,720,000 shares, a growth of 8.4% from the March 15th total of 12,660,000 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 10,910,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.3 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on KDP shares. Wedbush cut their price objective on shares of Keurig Dr Pepper from $37.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Keurig Dr Pepper from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Keurig Dr Pepper from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. HSBC started coverage on shares of Keurig Dr Pepper in a research note on Friday, December 22nd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $37.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Keurig Dr Pepper from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Keurig Dr Pepper presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.45.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Holdings B.V. Jab sold 13,043,478 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.90, for a total transaction of $376,956,514.20. Following the sale, the insider now owns 283,443,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,191,528,103.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Robert S. Singer sold 12,132 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.25, for a total value of $354,861.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 37,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,101,057.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings B.V. Jab sold 13,043,478 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.90, for a total transaction of $376,956,514.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 283,443,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,191,528,103.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 100,012,132 shares of company stock valued at $2,890,354,861. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. DAVENPORT & Co LLC grew its stake in shares of Keurig Dr Pepper by 24.3% in the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 2,604,968 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,820,000 after acquiring an additional 509,393 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Keurig Dr Pepper by 14.2% in the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 294,833 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,824,000 after acquiring an additional 36,560 shares during the period. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH grew its stake in shares of Keurig Dr Pepper by 43.8% in the fourth quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 1,099,145 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,624,000 after acquiring an additional 334,954 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Keurig Dr Pepper in the third quarter worth approximately $245,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Keurig Dr Pepper by 15.0% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,994,795 shares of the company’s stock worth $252,396,000 after acquiring an additional 1,044,167 shares during the period. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Keurig Dr Pepper Trading Up 0.0 %

NASDAQ:KDP opened at $30.44 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $30.26 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.00. Keurig Dr Pepper has a 12 month low of $27.66 and a 12 month high of $35.99. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The stock has a market cap of $42.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.66.

Keurig Dr Pepper (NASDAQ:KDP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.01. Keurig Dr Pepper had a net margin of 14.72% and a return on equity of 9.93%. The firm had revenue of $3.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.92 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.50 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Keurig Dr Pepper will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Keurig Dr Pepper Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Friday, March 29th were paid a $0.215 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.83%. Keurig Dr Pepper’s payout ratio is 55.48%.

Keurig Dr Pepper Company Profile

Keurig Dr Pepper Inc owns, manufactures, and distributors beverages and single serve brewing systems in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: U.S. Refreshment Beverages, U.S. Coffee, and International. The U.S. Refreshment Beverages segment manufactures and distributes branded concentrates, syrup, and finished beverages.