Hormel Foods Corporation $HRL Shares Sold by ProShare Advisors LLC

Key Points

• ProShare Advisors cut its Hormel Foods stake by 13%, selling 991,993 shares and retaining 6.64 million shares worth approximately $132.4 million. Institutional investors own about 41% of HRL.
• Analysts maintain a largely neutral outlook, with a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $25.43; several firms recently lowered their targets.
• Hormel reported quarterly EPS of $0.37, exceeding estimates, while revenue declined 2.4% year over year. The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.2925 per share, implying a 5.5% annualized yield.

ProShare Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL - Free Report) by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,638,469 shares of the company's stock after selling 991,993 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC owned about 1.21% of Hormel Foods worth $132,371,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Hormel Foods during the 2nd quarter valued at about $489,092,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Hormel Foods in the second quarter valued at approximately $51,787,000. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Hormel Foods in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $44,733,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Hormel Foods during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,876,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in shares of Hormel Foods in the 2nd quarter worth $32,446,000. 40.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HRL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. BNP Paribas Exane restated a "neutral" rating and set a $23.00 price target (down from $26.00) on shares of Hormel Foods in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. Piper Sandler reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Hormel Foods in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Hormel Foods from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $28.00 target price (down from $30.00) on shares of Hormel Foods in a report on Wednesday, October 14th. Finally, Stephens set a $23.00 price objective on shares of Hormel Foods in a report on Friday, August 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $25.43.

Insider Activity

In other Hormel Foods news, Chairman William A. Newlands acquired 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $20.10 per share, with a total value of $201,000.00. Following the acquisition, the chairman directly owned 76,375 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,535,137.50. The trade was a 15.07% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Hormel Foods Trading Up 2.1%

NYSE:HRL opened at $21.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.88 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.87, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.30. Hormel Foods Corporation has a one year low of $18.96 and a one year high of $26.60. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $20.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.86.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.02. Hormel Foods had a return on equity of 9.91% and a net margin of 2.82%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.35 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Hormel Foods Corporation will post 1.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hormel Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 13th will be given a dividend of $0.2925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 13th. This represents a $1.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.5%. Hormel Foods's dividend payout ratio is presently 185.71%.

Hormel Foods Profile

Hormel Foods Corporation NYSE: HRL is a global food company headquartered in Austin, Minnesota. Founded in 1891 by George A. Hormel, the company began as a meat-processing business and has expanded into a broad portfolio of branded food products sold through retail, foodservice and international channels.

Its products include refrigerated and shelf-stable meats, meals, snacks and other prepared foods. Hormel Foods markets products under well-known brands such as Hormel, SPAM, Jennie-O, Applegate, Columbus, Skippy and Planters, although its brand portfolio and business operations may evolve over time.

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