Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC Increases Stock Position in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its position in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) by 774.8% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,216 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,077 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in Hormel Foods were worth $42,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in Hormel Foods during the first quarter worth approximately $610,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Hormel Foods during the 1st quarter worth $42,000. Exeter Financial LLC increased its holdings in Hormel Foods by 99.3% in the 1st quarter. Exeter Financial LLC now owns 12,482 shares of the company’s stock valued at $439,000 after purchasing an additional 6,219 shares in the last quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its position in Hormel Foods by 100.7% in the first quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 85,660 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,989,000 after purchasing an additional 42,972 shares during the period. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA acquired a new position in shares of Hormel Foods during the first quarter worth about $213,000. 40.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on HRL shares. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Hormel Foods from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Hormel Foods from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $28.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $32.00 target price on shares of Hormel Foods in a research report on Friday, May 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.67.

Hormel Foods Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE HRL opened at $30.55 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.00. Hormel Foods Co. has a 12 month low of $28.51 and a 12 month high of $41.73. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $33.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.65.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. Hormel Foods had a return on equity of 11.31% and a net margin of 6.37%. The business had revenue of $2.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.97 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hormel Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors 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 3.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 15th. Hormel Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 80.71%.

Hormel Foods Company 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.