Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) Chairman Purchases $201,000.00 in Stock

Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) Chairman William Newlands purchased 10,000 shares of Hormel Foods stock in a transaction on Monday, October 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $20.10 per share, with a total value of $201,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman owned 76,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,535,137.50. The trade was a 15.07% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Hormel Foods Price Performance

Shares of HRL opened at $19.42 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.30. Hormel Foods Corporation has a twelve month low of $19.37 and a twelve month high of $26.60. The company has a 50 day moving average of $22.12 and a 200-day moving average of $22.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.02. Hormel Foods had a net margin of 2.82% and a return on equity of 9.91%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Hormel Foods Corporation will post 1.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hormel Foods Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 13th will be given a dividend of $0.2925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 13th. This represents a $1.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.0%. Hormel Foods’s payout ratio is 185.71%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Hormel Foods in the 2nd quarter valued at about $489,092,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Hormel Foods by 2.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,849,174 shares of the company’s stock worth $155,152,000 after buying an additional 134,983 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC increased its position in Hormel Foods by 7.8% during the second quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 2,285,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,716,000 after buying an additional 165,403 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Hormel Foods by 3.4% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,405,895 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,494,000 after buying an additional 79,509 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Hormel Foods in the first quarter valued at approximately $44,733,000. 40.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on HRL shares. Weiss Ratings cut Hormel Foods from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Stephens set a $23.00 target price on Hormel Foods in a report on Friday, August 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Hormel Foods from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 14th. BNP Paribas Exane restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $23.00 price target (down from $26.00) on shares of Hormel Foods in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Hormel Foods from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.71.

Hormel Foods Company Profile

Hormel Foods Corporation is a global food company headquartered in Austin, Minnesota. Founded in 1891 by George A. Hormel, the company began as a meat processor and has expanded into a broad portfolio of branded food products sold through retail, foodservice and international channels.

Its products include refrigerated and shelf-stable meat, deli meats, bacon, pepperoni, sausages, canned foods, nut products and other prepared foods. Key brands include Hormel, SPAM, Jennie-O, Applegate, Columbus and Planters.