Syon Capital LLC Acquires Shares of 7,218 Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Syon Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 7,218 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. grew its stake in Hormel Foods by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 68,497 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,199,000 after acquiring an additional 4,331 shares during the period. Cognios Beta Neutral Large Cap Fund LP lifted its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Cognios Beta Neutral Large Cap Fund LP now owns 16,230 shares of the company’s stock valued at $521,000 after purchasing an additional 1,542 shares in the last quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 16,590 shares of the company’s stock valued at $533,000 after purchasing an additional 920 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,775,780 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,020,000 after purchasing an additional 81,970 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Duality Advisers LP bought a new position in shares of Hormel Foods in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $470,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on HRL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Hormel Foods from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Hormel Foods from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Hormel Foods from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Barclays lifted their price target on Hormel Foods from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on Hormel Foods in a report on Thursday, February 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $31.00 price target on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hormel Foods

In other Hormel Foods news, VP Mark A. Coffey sold 15,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.18, for a total value of $526,372.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 68,029 shares in the company, valued at $2,325,231.22. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Kevin L. Myers sold 10,000 shares of Hormel Foods stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.95, for a total value of $349,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,708 shares in the company, valued at $1,352,844.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Mark A. Coffey sold 15,400 shares of Hormel Foods stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.18, for a total value of $526,372.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 68,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,325,231.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,800 shares of company stock worth $1,414,872 over the last ninety days. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hormel Foods Stock Performance

Shares of Hormel Foods stock opened at $35.32 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.27. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Hormel Foods Co. has a 12 month low of $28.51 and a 12 month high of $41.73.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.91 billion. Hormel Foods had a return on equity of 11.51% and a net margin of 6.55%. The business’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

Hormel Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be paid a $0.2825 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.20%. Hormel Foods’s payout ratio is presently 77.40%.

About Hormel Foods

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.