H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) Short Interest Up 5.3% in August

H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) was the target of a large increase in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 9,530,000 shares, an increase of 5.3% from the August 15th total of 9,050,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,240,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.7 days. Currently, 6.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at H&R Block

In other news, insider Dara S. Redler sold 9,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.10, for a total value of $583,310.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 22,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,414,430.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other H&R Block news, CEO Jeffrey J. Jones II sold 9,722 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.07, for a total transaction of $613,166.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 893,169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,332,168.83. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Dara S. Redler sold 9,100 shares of H&R Block stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.10, for a total value of $583,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 22,066 shares in the company, valued at $1,414,430.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 152,902 shares of company stock valued at $9,455,162 in the last three months. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in H&R Block by 42.3% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 49,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,438,000 after acquiring an additional 14,760 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of H&R Block by 270.7% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 16,319 shares of the company’s stock worth $885,000 after purchasing an additional 11,917 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of H&R Block by 576.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 580,227 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,496,000 after purchasing an additional 494,457 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in H&R Block by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 156,036 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,547,000 after buying an additional 1,039 shares during the period. Finally, Dorsey Wright & Associates bought a new stake in H&R Block during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,096,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.14% of the company’s stock.

H&R Block Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE HRB opened at $64.43 on Tuesday. H&R Block has a 1-year low of $39.20 and a 1-year high of $68.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.46, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The business’s 50 day moving average is $59.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $53.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.74, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.66.

H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. H&R Block had a negative return on equity of 220.05% and a net margin of 16.49%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.05 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that H&R Block will post 5.22 EPS for the current year.

H&R Block announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, August 15th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 16.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

H&R Block Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, September 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.375 per share. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.33%. This is an increase from H&R Block’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 5th. H&R Block’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on HRB shares. Barrington Research restated an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of H&R Block in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of H&R Block from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of H&R Block from $39.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th.

H&R Block Company Profile

H&R Block, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides assisted income tax return preparation and do-it-yourself (DIY) tax return preparation services and products to the general public primarily in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It offers assisted income tax return preparation and related services through a system of retail offices operated directly by the company or its franchisees.