RIA Advisory Group LLC Takes Position in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

RIA Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 2,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $86,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,500,871 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,726,636,000 after purchasing an additional 547,495 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,864,250 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,071,346,000 after purchasing an additional 685,894 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,310,807 shares of the company’s stock worth $251,121,000 after purchasing an additional 144,364 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,014,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $228,734,000 after purchasing an additional 165,563 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 26.3% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,970,027 shares of the company’s stock worth $180,835,000 after purchasing an additional 826,681 shares in the last quarter. 40.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on HRL shares. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Hormel Foods from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 12th. Citigroup initiated coverage on Hormel Foods in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $31.00 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Hormel Foods from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Barclays lifted their price target on Hormel Foods from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Hormel Foods from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Hormel Foods presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Mark A. Coffey sold 15,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.18, for a total transaction of $526,372.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 68,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,325,231.22. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, VP Mark A. Coffey sold 15,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.18, for a total transaction of $526,372.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 68,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,325,231.22. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kevin L. Myers sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.95, for a total value of $349,500.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 38,708 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,352,844.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 40,800 shares of company stock valued at $1,414,872 in the last 90 days. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hormel Foods Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of HRL stock opened at $34.75 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $33.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.47. Hormel Foods Co. has a twelve month low of $28.51 and a twelve month high of $41.73. The company has a market capitalization of $19.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.80, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.07. Hormel Foods had a net margin of 6.55% and a return on equity of 11.51%. The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.91 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hormel Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 25th will be paid a $0.2825 dividend. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. Hormel Foods’s payout ratio is 77.40%.

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.