Financial Counselors Inc. Acquires 3,651 Shares of Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI)

Financial Counselors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI) by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 247,725 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,651 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Hillenbrand were worth $9,914,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in HI. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Hillenbrand during the 4th quarter valued at $40,130,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Hillenbrand by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,702,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $437,645,000 after acquiring an additional 290,275 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Hillenbrand by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,747,176 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,605,000 after acquiring an additional 120,782 shares during the last quarter. Roubaix Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hillenbrand in the 1st quarter valued at $3,664,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hillenbrand in the 1st quarter valued at $3,285,000. Institutional investors own 89.09% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on HI. DA Davidson cut shares of Hillenbrand from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Monday, August 12th. StockNews.com cut shares of Hillenbrand from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Hillenbrand in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $50.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.00.

Hillenbrand Price Performance

HI opened at $32.96 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.24 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44. Hillenbrand, Inc. has a 12 month low of $31.81 and a 12 month high of $50.58. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.54.

Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $786.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $818.16 million. Hillenbrand had a negative net margin of 6.67% and a positive return on equity of 14.89%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.95 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Hillenbrand, Inc. will post 3.23 EPS for the current year.

Hillenbrand Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a $0.2225 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. This is a positive change from Hillenbrand’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.89 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.70%. Hillenbrand’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.55%.

About Hillenbrand

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.