H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) Lifted to “Buy” at StockNews.com

H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday.

Separately, Barrington Research lifted their target price on shares of H&R Block from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 28th.

H&R Block Price Performance

NYSE:HRB opened at $55.81 on Thursday. H&R Block has a 1-year low of $33.01 and a 1-year high of $56.63. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $52.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $49.31. The firm has a market cap of $7.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.68.

H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $4.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.66 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $2.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.14 billion. H&R Block had a negative return on equity of 224.81% and a net margin of 17.87%. H&R Block’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that H&R Block will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at H&R Block

In other news, CEO Jeffrey J. Jones II sold 44,975 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.55, for a total value of $2,453,386.25. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 712,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,860,656.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On H&R Block

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in H&R Block by 33.0% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 155,054 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,500,000 after acquiring an additional 38,476 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in H&R Block by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 156,036 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,547,000 after buying an additional 1,039 shares during the period. Dorsey Wright & Associates acquired a new stake in H&R Block during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,096,000. Optimist Retirement Group LLC purchased a new position in H&R Block in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,503,000. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in shares of H&R Block in the fourth quarter worth $2,805,000. 90.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About H&R Block

H&R Block, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides assisted income tax return preparation and do-it-yourself (DIY) tax return preparation services and products to the general public primarily in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It offers assisted income tax return preparation and related services through a system of retail offices operated directly by the company or its franchisees.