Pitcairn Co. Takes Position in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Pitcairn Co. bought a new stake in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 9,973 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $348,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 154,437 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,959,000 after buying an additional 11,026 shares during the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV bought a new position in shares of Hormel Foods in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,021,000. Qsemble Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Hormel Foods in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,181,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 31,967 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,026,000 after buying an additional 1,443 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Hormel Foods in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,694,000. 40.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on HRL shares. Citigroup cut their price target on Hormel Foods from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 31st. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $32.00 price objective on shares of Hormel Foods in a report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Hormel Foods from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, May 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Hormel Foods currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.67.

Hormel Foods Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of HRL stock traded up $0.33 on Thursday, reaching $31.84. The company had a trading volume of 2,360,621 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,789,669. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market cap of $17.46 billion, a PE ratio of 22.74, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a 50-day moving average of $31.69 and a 200-day moving average of $32.53. Hormel Foods Co. has a 12 month low of $28.51 and a 12 month high of $41.73.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. Hormel Foods had a return on equity of 11.31% and a net margin of 6.37%. The company had revenue of $2.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.97 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. Hormel Foods’s revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Hormel Foods Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.2825 per share. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 15th. Hormel Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 80.71%.

Hormel Foods Profile

Hormel Foods Corporation develops, processes, and distributes various meat, nuts, and other food products to retail, foodservice, deli, and commercial customers in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Retail, Foodservice, and International segments. The company provides various perishable products that include fresh meats, frozen items, refrigerated meal solutions, sausages, hams, guacamoles, and bacons; and shelf-stable products comprising canned luncheon meats, nut butters, snack nuts, chili, shelf-stable microwaveable meals, hash, stews, tortillas, salsas, tortilla chips, nutritional food supplements, and others.