American Century Companies Inc. Decreases Holdings in Hormel Foods Corporation $HRL

Key Points

• American Century Companies Inc. reduced its stake in Hormel Foods by 10.7%, selling 12,446 shares, and now holds 103,540 shares valued at $3.2 million.
• Several other institutional investors, including Dimensional Fund Advisors and Fjarde AP Fonden, increased their positions in Hormel Foods during the same period, contributing to a total of 40.99% institutional ownership of the stock.
• Hormel Foods' stock has recently faced decreasing target prices from multiple analysts, with JPMorgan lowering it from $34.00 to $30.00, while Barclays maintains an overweight rating with a revised target of $34.00.

American Century Companies Inc. reduced its holdings in Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL - Free Report) by 10.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 103,540 shares of the company's stock after selling 12,446 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.'s holdings in Hormel Foods were worth $3,204,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 9,725.4% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,335,797 shares of the company's stock worth $72,270,000 after acquiring an additional 2,312,024 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 496.3% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 2,185,600 shares of the company's stock worth $68,562,000 after buying an additional 1,819,100 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP boosted its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 466.5% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 2,053,160 shares of the company's stock worth $64,408,000 after buying an additional 1,690,746 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hormel Foods during the 1st quarter worth about $23,427,000. Finally, Man Group plc raised its stake in Hormel Foods by 186.0% in the 4th quarter. Man Group plc now owns 1,041,356 shares of the company's stock worth $32,667,000 after purchasing an additional 677,194 shares in the last quarter. 40.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Stephens restated an "equal weight" rating and issued a $31.00 target price on shares of Hormel Foods in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Hormel Foods from $34.00 to $30.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Hormel Foods from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Friday, August 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Hormel Foods from $35.00 to $31.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Hormel Foods from $35.00 to $28.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Hormel Foods presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $30.88.

Hormel Foods Stock Performance

Shares of HRL stock traded down $0.07 during trading on Thursday, reaching $25.29. 1,547,261 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,290,632. The company has a market capitalization of $13.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.46, a PEG ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm's 50-day moving average is $28.92 and its 200 day moving average is $29.55. Hormel Foods Corporation has a 1 year low of $23.71 and a 1 year high of $33.80.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 28th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.06). Hormel Foods had a return on equity of 10.06% and a net margin of 6.26%.The firm had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.98 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.37 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Hormel Foods has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.380-0.400 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 1.430-1.450 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Hormel Foods Corporation will post 1.65 EPS for the current year.

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.