Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Sells 9,423 Shares of Unilever PLC $UL

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Unilever PLC (NYSE:UL) by 20.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 36,184 shares of the company’s stock after selling 9,423 shares during the quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Unilever were worth $2,366,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in UL. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Unilever by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $599,000 after purchasing an additional 539 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Unilever by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 35,007 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,085,000 after buying an additional 1,587 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL raised its stake in Unilever by 39.7% during the 2nd quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 15,848 shares of the company’s stock worth $969,000 after buying an additional 4,501 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its stake in Unilever by 70.5% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 378,313 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,141,000 after buying an additional 156,404 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Unilever by 17.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 427,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,155,000 after buying an additional 63,376 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 9.67% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on UL. Royal Bank Of Canada raised Unilever from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. DZ Bank raised Unilever from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Argus raised Unilever to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Kepler Capital Markets downgraded Unilever from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Unilever from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Unilever presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.55.

Unilever Price Performance

Shares of Unilever stock opened at $58.38 on Monday. Unilever PLC has a 52 week low of $54.95 and a 52 week high of $74.97. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $61.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.42.

Unilever (NYSE:UL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.75 by ($1.00). The firm had revenue of $11.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.39 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Unilever PLC will post 3.54 EPS for the current year.

Unilever Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be paid a $0.5449 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%.

Unilever Profile

Unilever PLC is a global consumer goods company with roots dating back to the early 20th century, formed from the merger of the British firm Lever Brothers and the Dutch company Margarine Unie. The company develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of branded products in personal care, home care and foods and refreshments. Unilever’s corporate structure and listings reflect its long history in both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and it operates at scale across diverse consumer markets worldwide.

Unilever’s business is organized around major product categories—Beauty & Personal Care, Home Care and Foods & Refreshment—and includes numerous well-known consumer brands across those categories.