Cerity Partners LLC Buys 30,879 Shares of Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) by 80.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 69,390 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 30,879 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Hormel Foods were worth $2,200,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of HRL. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 404,445 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,112,000 after acquiring an additional 17,208 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Hormel Foods during the 1st quarter valued at $242,000. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 188.2% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 79,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,776,000 after purchasing an additional 51,949 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Hormel Foods by 688.3% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 741 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 647 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS increased its position in Hormel Foods by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 60,360 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after buying an additional 6,065 shares in the last quarter. 40.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Stephens assumed coverage on Hormel Foods in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $31.00 price target for the company. BNP Paribas started coverage on shares of Hormel Foods in a research report on Monday, October 21st. They set an “underperform” rating and a $28.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Hormel Foods from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Hormel Foods currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.29.

Hormel Foods Stock Up 1.6 %

HRL stock opened at $32.43 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 0.26. Hormel Foods Co. has a 12 month low of $28.51 and a 12 month high of $36.86. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 2.29 and a quick ratio of 1.03.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.01. Hormel Foods had a return on equity of 11.03% and a net margin of 6.52%. The company had revenue of $2.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.40 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.58 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a $0.29 dividend. This is a boost from Hormel Foods’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, January 13th. Hormel Foods’s payout ratio is currently 81.69%.

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.