Verition Fund Management LLC Buys Shares of 24,506 Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI)

Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new position in Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 24,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $681,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Hillenbrand by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,873,289 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,877,000 after buying an additional 66,741 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Hillenbrand by 13.1% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,184,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,408,000 after acquiring an additional 253,730 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Hillenbrand by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 978,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,215,000 after purchasing an additional 48,390 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Hillenbrand by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 834,186 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,384,000 after purchasing an additional 21,986 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its position in Hillenbrand by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 392,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,696,000 after purchasing an additional 16,323 shares during the last quarter. 89.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on HI shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Hillenbrand from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $33.00 price objective on shares of Hillenbrand in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their target price on Hillenbrand from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Two equities research 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.67.

Hillenbrand Stock Performance

NYSE HI opened at $33.34 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.34 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.15 and a beta of 1.43. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.27. Hillenbrand, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.11 and a fifty-two week high of $50.58.

Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.08. Hillenbrand had a positive return on equity of 14.86% and a negative net margin of 6.63%. The company had revenue of $837.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $793.38 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.13 earnings per share. Hillenbrand’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Hillenbrand, Inc. will post 3.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Hillenbrand Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be given a $0.225 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. This is an increase from Hillenbrand’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Hillenbrand’s dividend payout ratio is -29.77%.

About Hillenbrand

Hillenbrand, Inc operates as an industrial company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Advanced Process Solutions and Molding Technology Solutions. The Advanced Process Solutions segment designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, and services process and material handling equipment and systems comprising compounding, extrusion, and material handling equipment, equipment system design services, as well as offers mixing technology, ingredient automation, and portion process; and provides screening and separating equipment for various industries, including plastics, food and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, fertilizers, minerals, energy, wastewater treatment, forest products, and other general industrials.