Quantinno Capital Management LP Purchases 424 Shares of Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 11,156 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 424 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP’s holdings in Hormel Foods were worth $354,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in HRL. Holocene Advisors LP raised its position in Hormel Foods by 56.0% in the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 2,237,674 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,934,000 after acquiring an additional 802,816 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 86.4% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,602,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,867,000 after purchasing an additional 742,859 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Hormel Foods by 24.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,976,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,738,000 after purchasing an additional 575,378 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Hormel Foods by 59.1% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,244,448 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,470,000 after purchasing an additional 462,283 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its position in Hormel Foods by 15.4% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,089,868 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,210,000 after buying an additional 412,313 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 40.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on HRL. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Hormel Foods in a research note on Monday, October 21st. They set an “underperform” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Hormel Foods from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Stephens began coverage on shares of Hormel Foods in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $31.00 price objective on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.29.

Insider Activity at Hormel Foods

In related news, SVP Kevin L. Myers sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.70, for a total transaction of $327,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,050 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,276,935. This represents a 20.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Steven J. Lykken acquired 4,904 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $32.47 per share, with a total value of $159,232.88. Following the completion of the purchase, the vice president now directly owns 7,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $230,537. This represents a 223.32 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hormel Foods Trading Down 0.3 %

HRL stock opened at $32.94 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.56, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 2.32 and a quick ratio of 1.19. Hormel Foods Co. has a 1-year low of $28.51 and a 1-year high of $36.86. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.39.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 4th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $3.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.14 billion. Hormel Foods had a return on equity of 10.95% and a net margin of 6.75%. Hormel Foods’s revenue was down 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.42 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hormel Foods Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, January 13th. Hormel Foods’s payout ratio is currently 79.45%.

Hormel Foods Company Profile

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.