Private Advisor Group LLC Acquires 11,652 Shares of Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) by 29.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 50,667 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,652 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Hormel Foods were worth $1,768,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Mairs & Power Inc. lifted its stake in Hormel Foods by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Mairs & Power Inc. now owns 5,459,039 shares of the company’s stock worth $175,290,000 after purchasing an additional 108,944 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 97.8% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,900,989 shares of the company’s stock valued at $93,151,000 after acquiring an additional 1,434,437 shares during the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,654,609 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,239,000 after acquiring an additional 144,605 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,583,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,963,000 after acquiring an additional 196,460 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,450,447 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,679,000 after acquiring an additional 56,189 shares during the last quarter. 40.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Hormel Foods from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $32.00 price objective on shares of Hormel Foods in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Hormel Foods from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $28.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, May 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.67.

Hormel Foods Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HRL opened at $30.04 on Wednesday. Hormel Foods Co. has a 1 year low of $28.51 and a 1 year high of $41.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The company’s 50-day moving average is $32.58 and its 200 day moving average is $32.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.24.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.97 billion. Hormel Foods had a net margin of 6.37% and a return on equity of 11.31%. Hormel Foods’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.40 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Hormel Foods Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 15th will be issued a $0.2825 dividend. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 15th. Hormel Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.71%.

About Hormel Foods

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.