Insider Selling: Mission Produce (NASDAQ:AVO) Chairman Sells $281,398.00 in Stock

Mission Produce, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVO) Chairman Stephen Barnard sold 21,646 shares of Mission Produce stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.00, for a total value of $281,398.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman directly owned 1,684,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,902,322. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Mission Produce Price Performance

Shares of AVO opened at $13.14 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 438.15 and a beta of 0.48. Mission Produce, Inc. has a 1 year low of $10.07 and a 1 year high of $15.53. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $12.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.78.

Mission Produce (NASDAQ:AVO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, September 8th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $450.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $367.57 million. Mission Produce had a net margin of 0.12% and a return on equity of 5.91%. Mission Produce’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.26 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Mission Produce, Inc. will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mission Produce declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, June 8th that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 13.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AVO. Diversified Trust Co raised its position in Mission Produce by 12.0% in the 1st quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 19,373 shares of the company’s stock worth $267,000 after purchasing an additional 2,074 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Mission Produce by 5.9% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 37,509 shares of the company’s stock valued at $442,000 after buying an additional 2,082 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in shares of Mission Produce during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Mission Produce by 20.8% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,236 shares of the company’s stock worth $180,000 after buying an additional 2,628 shares during the period. Finally, Leonteq Securities AG purchased a new stake in shares of Mission Produce in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. 63.57% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Mission Produce from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 12th. Weiss Ratings lowered Mission Produce from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 price objective on shares of Mission Produce in a research note on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, UBS Group set a $16.00 price objective on Mission Produce in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Mission Produce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.50.

Mission Produce Company Profile

Mission Produce, Inc (NASDAQ:AVO) is an avocado sourcing, production, distribution and marketing company headquartered in Oxnard, California. The company supplies fresh Hass avocados and other avocado varieties to retail, foodservice and wholesale customers, managing activities across the supply chain from growing and procurement to ripening, packing and delivery.

Mission Produce works with avocado growers and operates or manages production and distribution activities in several major growing regions, including Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Brazil and the United States.