Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Has $1.61 Million Holdings in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) by 13.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 50,759 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,875 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Hormel Foods were worth $1,609,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of HRL. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its position in Hormel Foods by 86.4% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,602,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,867,000 after acquiring an additional 742,859 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 24.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,976,257 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,738,000 after purchasing an additional 575,378 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 59.1% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,244,448 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,470,000 after purchasing an additional 462,283 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 15.4% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,089,868 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,210,000 after purchasing an additional 412,313 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 328.3% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 514,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,297,000 after purchasing an additional 394,068 shares in the last quarter. 40.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Hormel Foods news, EVP Deanna T. Brady sold 51,600 shares of Hormel Foods stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.95, for a total value of $1,648,620.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 72,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,313,850.95. The trade was a 41.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Steven J. Lykken sold 9,800 shares of Hormel Foods stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.91, for a total value of $312,718.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 30,589 shares in the company, valued at approximately $976,094.99. This represents a 24.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 71,400 shares of company stock valued at $2,288,338 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Stephens assumed coverage on Hormel Foods in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $31.00 price target for the company. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Hormel Foods in a research note on Monday, October 21st. They set an “underperform” rating and a $28.00 price target for the company. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on Hormel Foods from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hormel Foods presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.29.

Hormel Foods Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of HRL stock opened at $31.92 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 2.29. Hormel Foods Co. has a twelve month low of $28.51 and a twelve month high of $36.86. The company has a market capitalization of $17.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.48, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.26.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. Hormel Foods had a return on equity of 11.03% and a net margin of 6.52%. The firm’s revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.40 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.58 EPS for the current year.

Hormel Foods Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, January 13th will be given a $0.29 dividend. This is an increase from Hormel Foods’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.63%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, January 13th. Hormel Foods’s payout ratio is currently 79.58%.

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.