Whole Earth Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: FREE) stock fell -3.69% on Thursday to $3.13 against a previous-day closing price of $3.25. With 0.51 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 0.5 million shares. During the session, the Packaged Foods company that operates in wider Consumer Defensive sector, reached to the highest price of $3.5500 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $3.1000. The 52-week range on FREE shows that it touched its highest point at $7.38 and its lowest point at $2.09 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $6.94. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.39.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of FREE was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 6.10%, but this was up by 33.76% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -11.83% while six-month performance fell -14.71%. The stock lost -51.17% in the past year, while it has lost -23.10% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for FREE yields -1.40 with Next year EPS estimates of -0.03. For the next quarter, that number is -0.10. This implies an EPS growth rate of 66.90% for this year and 93.60% for next year.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 41.99 million FREE shares are outstanding with a float of 34.57 million shares on hand for trading. On May 14, 2023, short shares totaled 2.99 million, which was 7.07% higher than short shares on Apr 13, 2023. In addition to Mr. Irwin David Simon as the firm’s Exec. Chairman, Mr. Michael Franklin serves as its Director & Interim CEO.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 68.91% of FREE’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 36.96% of FREE, in contrast to 18.97% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 18.85%. As the largest shareholder in FREE with 6.24% of the stake, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC holds 2,626,412 shares worth 2,626,412. A second-largest stockholder of FREE, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 2,355,696 shares, controlling over 5.60% of the firm’s shares. Armistice Capital LLC is the third largest shareholder in FREE, holding 2,150,000 shares or 5.11% stake. With a 3.17% stake in FREE, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 1,332,300 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The iShares Russell 2000 ETF, which owns about 1.99% of FREE stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 836,936 shares valued at 2.01 million. BNP Paribas Funds – Ecosystem Res holds 1.77% of the stake in FREE, owning 745,266 shares worth 1.79 million.
An Overview of Recent Financials:
Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Mar 30, 2023, FREE reported revenue of $133.50M and operating income of $7.69M. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $13.05M and diluted EPS was $0.03.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for FREE since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With FREE analysts setting a high price target of $10.00 and a low target of $5.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $6.94. Based on these targets, FREE could surge 219.49% to reach the target high and rise by 59.74% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 121.73% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded FREE stock several times over the past three months with 11 Buys and 7 Sells. In these transactions, 2,669,695 shares were bought while 17,216 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 19 while that of sell transactions has risen to 10 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 2,771,709 while 34,656 shares were sold.
