DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Raises Stock Holdings in H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its position in shares of H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) by 11.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 154,795 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,303 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned 0.11% of H&R Block worth $7,443,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of HRB. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of H&R Block in the fourth quarter worth $82,605,000. Boston Partners raised its position in H&R Block by 30.2% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,270,919 shares of the company’s stock valued at $160,614,000 after purchasing an additional 758,827 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in H&R Block by 415.0% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 782,288 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,839,000 after purchasing an additional 630,384 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in H&R Block by 11.8% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,295,911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,081,000 after purchasing an additional 558,076 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in H&R Block by 576.5% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 580,227 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,496,000 after purchasing an additional 494,457 shares in the last quarter. 90.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

H&R Block Trading Down 0.4 %

H&R Block stock traded down $0.20 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $56.79. 645,084 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 796,907. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $53.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.05. The company has a market cap of $7.92 billion, a PE ratio of 13.00, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.68. H&R Block, Inc. has a one year low of $33.65 and a one year high of $58.63.

H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $2.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.14 billion. H&R Block had a negative return on equity of 224.81% and a net margin of 17.87%. The business’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that H&R Block, Inc. will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

H&R Block Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 5th were given a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 5th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.25%. H&R Block’s payout ratio is 29.29%.

Insider Transactions 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 stock was 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on HRB shares. Barrington Research lifted their price objective on H&R Block from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. StockNews.com raised H&R Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th.

H&R Block Company Profile

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.