Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Sells 800 Shares of Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System reduced its position in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) by 4.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,600 shares of the company’s stock after selling 800 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Hormel Foods were worth $489,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of HRL. Holocene Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 56.0% in the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 2,237,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,934,000 after acquiring an additional 802,816 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Hormel Foods by 2.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,068,102 shares of the company’s stock valued at $794,659,000 after purchasing an additional 617,308 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Hormel Foods by 328.3% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 514,116 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,297,000 after purchasing an additional 394,068 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC lifted its position in Hormel Foods by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 1,825,660 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,271,000 after purchasing an additional 264,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp lifted its position in Hormel Foods by 5.2% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 3,267,186 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,570,000 after purchasing an additional 162,577 shares during the last quarter. 40.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Hormel Foods Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of HRL opened at $28.27 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $15.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.36, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 2.32. Hormel Foods Co. has a fifty-two week low of $28.03 and a fifty-two week high of $36.86. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $30.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.24.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 4th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $3.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.14 billion. Hormel Foods had a return on equity of 10.95% and a net margin of 6.75%. The company’s revenue was down 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Hormel Foods Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, January 13th were paid a $0.29 dividend. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.10%. This is an increase from Hormel Foods’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date was Monday, January 13th. Hormel Foods’s payout ratio is presently 79.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Steven J. Lykken bought 4,904 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $32.47 per share, with a total value of $159,232.88. Following the completion of the purchase, the vice president now directly owns 7,100 shares in the company, valued at $230,537. This represents a 223.32 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.72% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Hormel Foods from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $31.00 target price on shares of Hormel Foods in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Hormel Foods from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Hormel Foods currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.17.

Hormel Foods 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.