Mission Produce (NASDAQ:AVO) Chairman Sells $1,448,767.58 in Stock

Mission Produce, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVO) Chairman Stephen Barnard sold 111,358 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.01, for a total value of $1,448,767.58. Following the transaction, the chairman directly owned 1,695,185 shares in the company, valued at $22,054,356.85. The trade was a 6.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Mission Produce Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of Mission Produce stock opened at $13.14 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $12.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.78. The company has a market cap of $1.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 438.15 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Mission Produce, Inc. has a 1 year low of $10.07 and a 1 year high of $15.53.

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

Mission Produce announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, June 8th that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 13.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Mission Produce

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Mission Produce by 36.9% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,775,250 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,300,000 after purchasing an additional 1,286,263 shares during the period. Fourth Sail Capital LP lifted its stake in shares of Mission Produce by 258.5% in the second quarter. Fourth Sail Capital LP now owns 3,976,272 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,880,000 after buying an additional 2,867,072 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Mission Produce by 12.4% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,024,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,614,000 after buying an additional 334,629 shares in the last quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Mission Produce during the first quarter worth about $23,756,000. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in Mission Produce by 41.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,423,029 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,778,000 after buying an additional 416,126 shares in the last quarter. 63.57% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

About Mission Produce

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.