Steven J. Lykken Sells 9,800 Shares of Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) Stock

Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) VP Steven J. Lykken sold 9,800 shares of the 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 $976,094.99. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Hormel Foods Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE HRL opened at $31.65 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.79. Hormel Foods Co. has a one year low of $28.51 and a one year high of $38.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.25. 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 released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The company reported $0.37 EPS 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 business had revenue of $2.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.95 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.40 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Hormel Foods Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.282 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.56%. Hormel Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 80.71%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hormel Foods

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Hormel Foods by 97.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,900,989 shares of the company’s stock valued at $93,151,000 after acquiring an additional 1,434,437 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in Hormel Foods by 86.4% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,602,732 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,867,000 after acquiring an additional 742,859 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Hormel Foods by 24.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,976,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,738,000 after acquiring an additional 575,378 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its stake in Hormel Foods by 9.9% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 5,638,546 shares of the company’s stock valued at $196,729,000 after acquiring an additional 505,942 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Hormel Foods by 59.1% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,244,448 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,470,000 after acquiring an additional 462,283 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Citigroup raised Hormel Foods from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $33.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.33.

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.