Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Lowers Position in Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lessened its position in Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL - Free Report) by 10.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 262,986 shares of the company's stock after selling 30,840 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC's holdings in Hormel Foods were worth $8,137,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in HRL. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Hormel Foods in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 86.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 1,484 shares of the company's stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 690 shares in the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 729 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Hormel Foods in the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. Finally, Riverview Trust Co increased its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 183.8% in the 1st quarter. Riverview Trust Co now owns 1,572 shares of the company's stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 1,018 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.99% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Hormel Foods

In other news, Director Elsa A. Murano sold 4,500 shares of Hormel Foods 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 95,488 shares in the company, valued at $2,902,835.20. The trade was a 4.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.72% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of Hormel Foods from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price target for the company from $29.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Hormel Foods from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Stephens restated an "equal weight" rating and set a $31.00 target price on shares of Hormel Foods in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Hormel Foods from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Hormel Foods has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $32.50.

Hormel Foods Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of NYSE HRL traded up $0.23 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $30.39. 7,404,215 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,652,084. The company has a market capitalization of $16.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.33. Hormel Foods Corporation has a 52-week low of $27.59 and a 52-week high of $33.80. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $30.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.22.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.35. The business had revenue of $2.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Hormel Foods had a net margin of 6.27% and a return on equity of 10.20%. The company's quarterly revenue was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Hormel Foods Corporation will post 1.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hormel Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 14th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.82%. Hormel Foods's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.29%.

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.