Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) Price Target Cut to $35.00 by Analysts at Citigroup

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) had its price target reduced by Citigroup from $36.00 to $35.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on HRL. BNP Paribas started coverage on Hormel Foods in a research note on Monday, October 21st. They set an “underperform” rating and a $28.00 target price on the stock. Stephens assumed coverage on shares of Hormel Foods in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $31.00 price objective on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.29.

Hormel Foods Stock Performance

Shares of HRL stock opened at $29.75 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 2.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business has a 50 day moving average of $31.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.81. Hormel Foods has a 52 week low of $28.51 and a 52 week high of $36.86. The company has a market cap of $16.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.95, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.26.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.40 earnings per share. Hormel Foods’s quarterly revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Hormel Foods will post 1.58 EPS for the current year.

Hormel Foods Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a $0.282 dividend. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. Hormel Foods’s dividend payout ratio is presently 79.58%.

Insider Activity at Hormel Foods

In related news, EVP Deanna T. Brady sold 51,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 72,421 shares in the company, valued at $2,313,850.95. The trade was a 41.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Steven J. Lykken sold 9,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.91, for a total transaction of $312,718.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 30,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $976,094.99. The trade was a 24.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 71,400 shares of company stock valued at $2,288,338 over the last 90 days. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HRL. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,068,102 shares of the company’s stock worth $794,659,000 after acquiring an additional 617,308 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,362,658 shares of the company’s stock worth $232,646,000 after acquiring an additional 120,212 shares during the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 3,267,186 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,570,000 after acquiring an additional 162,577 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,089,868 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,210,000 after acquiring an additional 412,313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 24.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,976,257 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,738,000 after acquiring an additional 575,378 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 40.99% of the company’s stock.

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.