Steven J. Lykken Sells 9,800 Shares of Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) Stock

Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) VP Steven J. Lykken sold 9,800 shares of Hormel Foods stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.91, for a total transaction of $312,718.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 30,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $976,094.99. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Hormel Foods Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of HRL stock traded down $0.09 on Monday, hitting $31.63. 372,729 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,677,280. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 2.29. Hormel Foods Co. has a one year low of $28.51 and a one year high of $38.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.25.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.01. Hormel Foods had a net margin of 6.52% and a return on equity of 11.03%. The business had revenue of $2.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.95 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.58 EPS for the current year.

Hormel Foods Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be given a $0.282 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.57%. Hormel Foods’s dividend payout ratio is 80.71%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Citigroup upgraded shares of Hormel Foods from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $33.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.33.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Hormel Foods by 97.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,900,989 shares of the company’s stock worth $93,151,000 after purchasing an additional 1,434,437 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in Hormel Foods by 86.4% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,602,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,867,000 after acquiring an additional 742,859 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Hormel Foods by 24.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,976,257 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,738,000 after purchasing an additional 575,378 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 9.9% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 5,638,546 shares of the company’s stock valued at $196,729,000 after purchasing an additional 505,942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 59.1% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,244,448 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,470,000 after purchasing an additional 462,283 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.99% of the company’s stock.

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.