Keynote Financial Services LLC Purchases Shares of 12,805 Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Keynote Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 12,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $447,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its position in Hormel Foods by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 9,912 shares of the company’s stock valued at $346,000 after buying an additional 352 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in Hormel Foods by 21.1% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,069 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 361 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in Hormel Foods by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 20,291 shares of the company’s stock worth $708,000 after purchasing an additional 389 shares in the last quarter. Viawealth LLC raised its holdings in Hormel Foods by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Viawealth LLC now owns 17,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $598,000 after purchasing an additional 401 shares in the last quarter. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its holdings in Hormel Foods by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 9,663 shares of the company’s stock worth $310,000 after purchasing an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on HRL. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Hormel Foods from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Hormel Foods from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $28.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $32.00 price target on shares of Hormel Foods in a research note on Friday, May 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hormel Foods currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.67.

Hormel Foods Stock Performance

Shares of HRL traded up $0.41 on Friday, reaching $32.87. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,633,779 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,162,669. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.48, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $31.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.54. 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 quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. Hormel Foods had a net margin of 6.37% and a return on equity of 11.31%. The business had revenue of $2.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.97 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hormel Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 15th will be given a dividend of $0.2825 per share. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 15th. Hormel Foods’s payout ratio is currently 80.71%.

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.