Alpha Family Trust Buys New Position in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Alpha Family Trust bought a new stake in shares of Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 9,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $316,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in HRL. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 15.6% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 127,684 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,454,000 after purchasing an additional 17,199 shares in the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 18,267 shares of the company’s stock valued at $637,000 after purchasing an additional 1,091 shares in the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 344,611 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,023,000 after purchasing an additional 15,522 shares in the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL bought a new stake in shares of Hormel Foods during the 1st quarter valued at about $220,000. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 84.0% during the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 62,621 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,185,000 after purchasing an additional 28,594 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HRL has been the subject of a number of research reports. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Hormel Foods in a research note on Monday, October 21st. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup raised shares of Hormel Foods from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $33.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Stephens began coverage on shares of Hormel Foods in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $31.00 price objective on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.57.

Hormel Foods Stock Performance

Shares of Hormel Foods stock opened at $29.21 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $16.02 billion, a PE ratio of 20.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.26. Hormel Foods Co. has a 52 week low of $28.51 and a 52 week high of $36.86. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $31.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 2.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. Hormel Foods had a return on equity of 11.03% and a net margin of 6.52%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.40 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hormel Foods Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a $0.282 dividend. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.86%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 15th. Hormel Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.58%.

Insider Transactions at Hormel Foods

In other news, VP Steven J. Lykken sold 9,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.91, for a total value of $312,718.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 30,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $976,094.99. This represents a 24.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Deanna T. Brady sold 51,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.95, for a total value of $1,648,620.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 72,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,313,850.95. This represents a 41.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 71,400 shares of company stock valued at $2,288,338 over the last ninety days. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.