Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) Short Interest Down 13.3% in August

Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,910,000 shares, a decrease of 13.3% from the August 15th total of 9,120,000 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,230,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.5 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Deanna T. Brady sold 51,600 shares of Hormel Foods stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.95, for a total transaction of $1,648,620.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 72,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,313,850.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hormel Foods

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 9,912 shares of the company’s stock worth $346,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 1.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 31,499 shares of the company’s stock valued at $959,000 after buying an additional 384 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 2.0% during the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 20,291 shares of the company’s stock worth $708,000 after acquiring an additional 389 shares in the last quarter. Viawealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Viawealth LLC now owns 17,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $598,000 after acquiring an additional 401 shares during the last quarter. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its position in Hormel Foods by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 9,663 shares of the company’s stock valued at $310,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. 40.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Hormel Foods Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of Hormel Foods stock traded up $0.04 on Wednesday, hitting $32.41. 1,699,436 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,678,468. The company has a fifty day moving average of $32.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.96. Hormel Foods has a one year low of $28.51 and a one year high of $39.58. The company has a market capitalization of $17.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 2.29 and a quick ratio of 1.03.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

HRL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup raised Hormel Foods from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $33.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $32.00 price objective on shares of Hormel Foods in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Hormel Foods from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $28.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, May 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.33.

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.