JBT Marel (NYSE:JBTM) Hits New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

JBT Marel Corporation (NYSE:JBTM) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $160.91 and last traded at $160.43, with a volume of 49280 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $157.31.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on JBTM shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of JBT Marel from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of JBT Marel in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.50.

JBT Marel Trading Up 2.2%

The firm has a market cap of $8.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -73.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50 day moving average of $152.61 and a 200 day moving average of $142.91. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

JBT Marel (NYSE:JBTM) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The company reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.43. JBT Marel had a negative net margin of 3.39% and a positive return on equity of 7.88%. The business had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $936.75 million. The company’s revenue was up 120.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that JBT Marel Corporation will post 5.21 EPS for the current year.

JBT Marel Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th were paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. JBT Marel’s payout ratio is -17.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Olafur S. Gudmundsson sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.09, for a total transaction of $1,500,900.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 9,980 shares in the company, valued at $1,497,898.20. This represents a 50.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Salomon & Ludwin LLC acquired a new stake in shares of JBT Marel in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. First Horizon Corp acquired a new position in shares of JBT Marel during the third quarter valued at $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. bought a new position in JBT Marel in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in JBT Marel in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in JBT Marel in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Institutional investors own 98.92% of the company’s stock.

JBT Marel Company Profile

JBT Marel Corporation provides technology solutions to food and beverage industry in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. It offers value-added processing that includes chilling, mixing/grinding, injecting, blending, marinating, tumbling, flattening, forming, portioning, coating, cooking, frying, freezing, extracting, pasteurizing, sterilizing, concentrating, high pressure processing, weighing, inspecting, filling, closing, sealing, end of line material handling, and packaging solutions to the food, beverage, and health market.