Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) Upgraded by StockNews.com to Buy Rating

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Tuesday.

Several other research firms also recently commented on HI. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Hillenbrand from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $33.00 price objective on shares of Hillenbrand in a report on Friday, November 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Hillenbrand presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $44.67.

Hillenbrand Trading Down 2.2 %

HI stock opened at $30.81 on Tuesday. Hillenbrand has a 12-month low of $25.11 and a 12-month high of $50.58. The business’s 50-day moving average is $30.61 and its 200 day moving average is $34.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market cap of $2.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.30 and a beta of 1.43.

Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The company reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $837.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $793.38 million. Hillenbrand had a positive return on equity of 14.86% and a negative net margin of 6.63%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.13 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Hillenbrand will post 3.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hillenbrand Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.225 per share. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.92%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. This is an increase from Hillenbrand’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Hillenbrand’s payout ratio is -30.10%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Hillenbrand by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,873,289 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,877,000 after purchasing an additional 66,741 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Hillenbrand by 0.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,739,689 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,163,000 after acquiring an additional 19,546 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Hillenbrand by 13.1% during the 2nd 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. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Hillenbrand by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,602,744 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,565,000 after purchasing an additional 6,682 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Hillenbrand by 5.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 978,953 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,215,000 after buying an additional 48,390 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.09% of the company’s stock.

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.