H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) Sets New 1-Year High at $54.37

Shares of H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) hit a new 52-week high on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $54.37 and last traded at $53.37, with a volume of 109040 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $53.67.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on HRB. Barrington Research boosted their price target on H&R Block from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of H&R Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th.

H&R Block Trading Up 1.3 %

The company has a market cap of $7.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.41, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 0.69. The business has a fifty day moving average of $50.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $48.58.

H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $4.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.66 by $0.28. H&R Block had a negative return on equity of 224.81% and a net margin of 17.87%. The company had revenue of $2.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.20 EPS. H&R Block’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that H&R Block, Inc. will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

H&R Block Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 5th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.36%. H&R Block’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.29%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On H&R Block

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HRB. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of H&R Block in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $82,605,000. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of H&R Block by 30.2% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,270,919 shares of the company’s stock valued at $160,614,000 after acquiring an additional 758,827 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of H&R Block by 415.0% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 782,288 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,839,000 after acquiring an additional 630,384 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of H&R Block by 11.8% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,295,911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,081,000 after acquiring an additional 558,076 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of H&R Block by 576.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 580,227 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,496,000 after acquiring an additional 494,457 shares in the last quarter. 90.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

H&R Block Company Profile

H&R Block, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides assisted income tax return preparation and do-it-yourself (DIY) tax return preparation services and products to the general public primarily in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It offers assisted income tax return preparation and related services through a system of retail offices operated directly by the company or its franchisees.