Hartford Funds Management Co LLC Increases Stock Position in BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP)

Hartford Funds Management Co LLC grew its stake in shares of BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) by 50.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 11,391 shares of the mining company’s stock after buying an additional 3,797 shares during the quarter. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s holdings in BHP Group were worth $556,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BHP. XY Capital Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of BHP Group by 503.6% during the 3rd quarter. XY Capital Ltd now owns 921,666 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $57,245,000 after acquiring an additional 768,972 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of BHP Group by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,603,624 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $348,041,000 after acquiring an additional 642,765 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of BHP Group by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 21,944,876 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,362,996,000 after acquiring an additional 633,290 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BHP Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,878,000. Finally, Chartwell Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of BHP Group in the third quarter worth approximately $9,830,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 3.79% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on BHP shares. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of BHP Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of BHP Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Clarkson Capital raised shares of BHP Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $53.00.

BHP Group Price Performance

NYSE BHP opened at $50.67 on Friday. BHP Group Limited has a 12 month low of $48.06 and a 12 month high of $63.21. The stock has a market cap of $128.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.52 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50 day moving average is $49.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

BHP Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. BHP Group’s payout ratio is 44.77%.

About BHP Group

BHP Group Limited operates as a resources company in Australia, Europe, China, Japan, India, South Korea, the rest of Asia, North America, South America, and internationally. The company operates through Copper, Iron Ore, and Coal segments. It engages in the mining of copper, uranium, gold, zinc, lead, molybdenum, silver, iron ore, cobalt, and metallurgical and energy coal.