V.F. (NYSE:VFC) Stock Jumps 3.7% Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) shot up 3.7% on Monday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $23.00 to $24.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. V.F. traded as high as $15.57 and last traded at $15.5580. 1,982,364 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 7,306,871 shares. The stock had previously closed at $15.00.

VFC has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Evercore set a $16.00 target price on V.F. in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on V.F. from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 30th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating on shares of V.F. in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of V.F. from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of V.F. from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, V.F. presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.36.

Insider Activity

In other V.F. news, Director Richard Carucci purchased 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $14.73 per share, with a total value of $294,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 356,215 shares in the company, valued at $5,247,046.95. This trade represents a 5.95% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bracken Darrell acquired 32,894 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 31st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $14.98 per share, for a total transaction of $492,752.12. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 1,402,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,003,592.82. This trade represents a 2.40% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 1.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of V.F. during the second quarter valued at about $42,038,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC lifted its stake in shares of V.F. by 298.1% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 1,782,904 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $29,739,000 after buying an additional 1,335,057 shares during the period. Varenne Capital Partners bought a new position in V.F. during the second quarter valued at about $13,671,000. Madison Asset Management LLC bought a new position in V.F. during the second quarter valued at about $3,913,000. Finally, Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in V.F. in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,209,000. 86.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

V.F. Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $16.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. The stock has a market cap of $6.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.89, a PEG ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.56.

V.F. (NYSE:VFC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The textile maker reported ($0.27) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by ($0.05). V.F. had a return on equity of 18.91% and a net margin of 2.88%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.24) EPS. V.F.’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that V.F. Corporation will post 1.08 earnings per share for the current year.

V.F. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 10th were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 10th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. V.F.’s payout ratio is currently 52.17%.

About V.F.

V.F. Corporation (NYSE: VFC) is a global apparel, footwear and accessories company. Its portfolio includes well-known outdoor, active and workwear brands such as The North Face, Vans, Timberland and Dickies, which offer products ranging from outdoor clothing and hiking footwear to casual apparel, skate shoes and workwear.

The company sells its products through wholesale customers, brand-operated stores, e-commerce platforms and other digital channels. V.F. serves consumers in markets worldwide, with operations and distribution spanning North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and other international regions.

Founded in 1899 as a manufacturer of gloves and mittens, the company later expanded into apparel and became known as Vanity Fair Mills before adopting the V.F.