Advisor Resource Council Takes Position in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Advisor Resource Council acquired a new position in shares of Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 10,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $314,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Hormel Foods in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Hormel Foods during the fourth quarter worth $44,000. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its stake in Hormel Foods by 86.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 1,484 shares of the company's stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 690 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Hormel Foods in the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. Finally, Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 91.8% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,523 shares of the company's stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 729 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.99% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hormel Foods news, Director Elsa A. Murano sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.40, for a total transaction of $136,800.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 95,488 shares in the company, valued at $2,902,835.20. This represents a 4.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.72% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America raised shares of Hormel Foods from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their target price for the company from $29.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Stephens restated an "equal weight" rating and issued a $31.00 price objective on shares of Hormel Foods in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Hormel Foods from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $30.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Hormel Foods from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $32.00.

Hormel Foods Stock Performance

HRL traded up $0.35 during trading on Thursday, hitting $30.39. The stock had a trading volume of 6,055,373 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,675,655. Hormel Foods Co. has a one year low of $27.59 and a one year high of $34.55. The firm has a market cap of $16.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $29.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 2.32 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.35. The firm had revenue of $2.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. Hormel Foods had a net margin of 6.75% and a return on equity of 10.95%. The business's revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.65 EPS for the current year.

Hormel Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.29 per share. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 14th. Hormel Foods's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 84.67%.

Hormel Foods 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.