Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $33.00 target price on shares of Hillenbrand in a research report on Friday, November 15th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Hillenbrand from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 14th.

Hillenbrand Trading Down 7.3 %

Hillenbrand stock opened at $31.46 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $32.51 and a 200-day moving average of $31.92. Hillenbrand has a 1 year low of $25.11 and a 1 year high of $50.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.02. Hillenbrand had a positive return on equity of 14.86% and a negative net margin of 6.63%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.69 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Hillenbrand will post 3.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hillenbrand Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.225 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This is a boost from Hillenbrand’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.86%. Hillenbrand’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -30.10%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hillenbrand

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Inceptionr LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hillenbrand during the 4th quarter valued at $330,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Hillenbrand during the 4th quarter valued at about $7,782,000. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Hillenbrand during the 4th quarter valued at about $218,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Hillenbrand during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,013,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Hillenbrand by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,084,818 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,391,000 after buying an additional 105,865 shares in the last quarter. 89.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Hillenbrand

Hillenbrand, Inc operates as an industrial company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Advanced Process Solutions and Molding Technology Solutions. The Advanced Process Solutions segment designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, and services process and material handling equipment and systems comprising compounding, extrusion, and material handling equipment, equipment system design services, as well as offers mixing technology, ingredient automation, and portion process; and provides screening and separating equipment for various industries, including plastics, food and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, fertilizers, minerals, energy, wastewater treatment, forest products, and other general industrials.