Freshpet (NASDAQ:FRPT) Rating Increased to Overweight at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Freshpet (NASDAQ:FRPT) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research note released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $68.00 price objective on the stock, up from their previous price objective of $66.00.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Freshpet from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. TD Cowen upgraded Freshpet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Oppenheimer raised shares of Freshpet from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Freshpet from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $71.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Benchmark boosted their price objective on Freshpet from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Freshpet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.88.

Freshpet Stock Performance

Shares of Freshpet stock traded down $2.04 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $53.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 354,621 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,469,620. Freshpet has a one year low of $46.76 and a one year high of $89.80. The stock has a market cap of $2.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.38 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 4.57 and a current ratio of 6.18. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.53.

Freshpet (NASDAQ:FRPT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 23rd. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.21. Freshpet had a net margin of 17.63% and a return on equity of 6.22%. The firm had revenue of $285.23 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $285.66 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. Freshpet’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Freshpet will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freshpet

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FRPT. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Freshpet by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 917,785 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,103,000 after purchasing an additional 78,196 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in Freshpet by 200.6% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 651,202 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,395,000 after acquiring an additional 434,582 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake in Freshpet by 58.4% during the first quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 7,168 shares of the company’s stock worth $423,000 after acquiring an additional 2,642 shares in the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of Freshpet by 10.5% in the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 26,109 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,539,000 after purchasing an additional 2,482 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust grew its holdings in shares of Freshpet by 19.3% in the 1st quarter. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust now owns 300,932 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,743,000 after purchasing an additional 48,626 shares during the last quarter.

About Freshpet

Freshpet Inc (NASDAQ: FRPT) is a leading pet food company specializing in fresh, refrigerated meals and treats for dogs and cats. The company’s products are formulated with carefully selected, natural ingredients and are designed to offer a higher level of nutrition and freshness than traditional dry or canned pet foods. Freshpet’s offerings include refrigerated rolls, pâtés and snacks, all of which are sold through the refrigerated section of grocery, mass-market and pet specialty stores.

Freshpet’s product portfolio is built around the concept of fresh, minimally processed recipes that do not require preservatives or artificial colors.