Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning.

HI has been the topic of several other reports. KeyCorp cut their target price on Hillenbrand from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $33.00 price objective on shares of Hillenbrand in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $44.67.

Hillenbrand Price Performance

Hillenbrand stock opened at $30.81 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $34.37. The stock has a market cap of $2.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.30 and a beta of 1.43. Hillenbrand has a 52 week low of $25.11 and a 52 week high of $50.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The company reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $837.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $793.38 million. Hillenbrand had a positive return on equity of 14.86% and a negative net margin of 6.63%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.13 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Hillenbrand will post 3.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hillenbrand Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be issued a $0.225 dividend. This is a boost from Hillenbrand’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th. Hillenbrand’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -30.10%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hillenbrand

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of HI. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Hillenbrand by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,873,289 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,877,000 after acquiring an additional 66,741 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Hillenbrand by 0.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,739,689 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,163,000 after acquiring an additional 19,546 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Hillenbrand by 13.1% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,184,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,408,000 after acquiring an additional 253,730 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Hillenbrand by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,602,744 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,565,000 after purchasing an additional 6,682 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Hillenbrand by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 978,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,215,000 after purchasing an additional 48,390 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.09% of the company’s stock.

Hillenbrand Company Profile

Hillenbrand, Inc operates as an industrial company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Advanced Process Solutions and Molding Technology Solutions. The Advanced Process Solutions segment designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, and services process and material handling equipment and systems comprising compounding, extrusion, and material handling equipment, equipment system design services, as well as offers mixing technology, ingredient automation, and portion process; and provides screening and separating equipment for various industries, including plastics, food and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, fertilizers, minerals, energy, wastewater treatment, forest products, and other general industrials.