Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) Raised to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Friday morning.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on HI. KeyCorp dropped their target price on Hillenbrand from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $33.00 price objective on shares of Hillenbrand in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Hillenbrand has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.67.

Hillenbrand Price Performance

NYSE:HI opened at $34.54 on Friday. Hillenbrand has a 52 week low of $25.11 and a 52 week high of $50.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.43 billion, a PE ratio of -11.30 and a beta of 1.38. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $28.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.61.

Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The company reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.08. Hillenbrand had a positive return on equity of 14.86% and a negative net margin of 6.63%. The firm had revenue of $837.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $793.38 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.13 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Hillenbrand will post 3.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hillenbrand Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.2225 per share. This is a positive change from Hillenbrand’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.89 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Hillenbrand’s payout ratio is -29.77%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hillenbrand

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HI. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Hillenbrand in the third quarter valued at approximately $17,178,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Hillenbrand by 3.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,702,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $437,645,000 after purchasing an additional 290,275 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Hillenbrand by 13.1% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,184,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,408,000 after purchasing an additional 253,730 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Hillenbrand in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,368,000. Finally, Bernzott Capital Advisors grew its position in shares of Hillenbrand by 51.3% in the third quarter. Bernzott Capital Advisors now owns 225,753 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,276,000 after purchasing an additional 76,533 shares in the last quarter. 89.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Hillenbrand Company Profile

Hillenbrand, Inc operates as an industrial company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Advanced Process Solutions and Molding Technology Solutions. The Advanced Process Solutions segment designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, and services process and material handling equipment and systems comprising compounding, extrusion, and material handling equipment, equipment system design services, as well as offers mixing technology, ingredient automation, and portion process; and provides screening and separating equipment for various industries, including plastics, food and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, fertilizers, minerals, energy, wastewater treatment, forest products, and other general industrials.