Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Reduce” from Analysts

Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL – Get Rating) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation and five have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $42.50.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stephens lowered their price objective on shares of Hormel Foods from $52.00 to $47.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 6th. TheStreet downgraded shares of Hormel Foods from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Thursday, March 2nd. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Hormel Foods in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Hormel Foods from $48.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Friday, March 3rd. Finally, Credit Suisse Group reduced their price objective on shares of Hormel Foods from $44.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 3rd.

Insider Activity at Hormel Foods

In other Hormel Foods news, Director Becerra Jose Luis Prado sold 5,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.01, for a total transaction of $202,852.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,410 shares in the company, valued at approximately $718,174.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, Director Becerra Jose Luis Prado sold 5,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.01, for a total value of $202,852.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,410 shares in the company, valued at approximately $718,174.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Elsa A. Murano sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.50, for a total value of $243,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 102,698 shares in the company, valued at $4,159,269. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 37.8% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 948,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,824,000 after buying an additional 260,122 shares in the last quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 1.1% during the first quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 168,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,712,000 after buying an additional 1,795 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 1.8% during the first quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 64,794 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,559,000 after buying an additional 1,124 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 6.0% during the first quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 175,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,993,000 after buying an additional 9,940 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 2.6% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,864,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,071,346,000 after buying an additional 685,894 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 39.74% of the company’s stock.

Hormel Foods Stock Performance

Shares of HRL stock opened at $39.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 2.33. The company has a market capitalization of $21.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.17. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $39.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.64. Hormel Foods has a 52 week low of $37.78 and a 52 week high of $51.69.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.45 by ($0.05). Hormel Foods had a return on equity of 13.10% and a net margin of 7.90%. The company had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.08 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.44 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Hormel Foods will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hormel Foods Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 17th were issued a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 14th. Hormel Foods’s payout ratio is presently 61.45%.

Hormel Foods Company Profile

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Hormel Foods Corp. engages in the production of meat and food products. It operates through the following segments: Grocery Products, Refrigerated Foods, Jennie-O Turkey Store, and International and Other. The Grocery Products segment focuses on the processing, marketing, and sale of shelf-stable food products sold in the retail market.