Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Acquires New Shares in Hormel Foods Corporation $HRL

Key Points

• Mirae Asset Global Investments acquired 152,367 Hormel Foods shares in the third quarter, valued at approximately $3.04 million. Institutional investors collectively own about 41% of the company.
• Hormel’s chairman bought 10,000 shares for approximately $201,000. Analyst opinion is mostly neutral: the consensus rating is “Hold,” with an average price target of $25.43.
• Hormel beat quarterly EPS estimates ($0.37 versus $0.35), but revenue fell 2.4% year over year and missed expectations. The company announced an annualized dividend of $1.17 per share, a 5.3% yield.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 152,367 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,038,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State of Wyoming boosted its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 36.6% in the 3rd quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 27,260 shares of the company's stock worth $544,000 after buying an additional 7,301 shares during the last quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. lifted its holdings in Hormel Foods by 4.4% in the third quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 28,436 shares of the company's stock valued at $567,000 after acquiring an additional 1,189 shares during the period. Latitude Advisors LLC bought a new position in Hormel Foods in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Sigma Planning Corp boosted its position in Hormel Foods by 8.1% in the third quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 31,591 shares of the company's stock worth $630,000 after purchasing an additional 2,355 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 11.6% during the 3rd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 8,655 shares of the company's stock valued at $173,000 after purchasing an additional 897 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.99% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Hormel Foods

In related news, Chairman William A. Newlands acquired 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $20.10 per share, with a total value of $201,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman directly owned 76,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,535,137.50. This represents a 15.07% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on HRL. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Hormel Foods from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Friday, August 28th. BNP Paribas Exane reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $23.00 target price (down from $26.00) on shares of Hormel Foods in a report on Wednesday, October 7th. Barclays reaffirmed 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. Piper Sandler reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Hormel Foods in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. Finally, Stephens set a $23.00 price objective on shares of Hormel Foods in a research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $25.43.

Hormel Foods Price Performance

Hormel Foods stock traded down $0.65 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $21.95. The stock had a trading volume of 5,874,949 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,515,812. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.88, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm's 50 day moving average is $20.68 and its 200 day moving average is $22.80. Hormel Foods Corporation has a one year low of $18.96 and a one year high of $26.60.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The company reported $0.37 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.03 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.35 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Hormel Foods Corporation will post 1.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hormel Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 13th will be given a dividend of $0.2925 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 13th. This represents a $1.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.3%. Hormel Foods's payout ratio is 185.71%.

Hormel Foods Company 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.