Pathway Financial Advisers LLC Invests $158,000 in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Pathway Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 4,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $158,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Hormel Foods in the fourth quarter valued at $62,323,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,434,437 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 505,942 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Hormel Foods by 40.6% in the first quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 1,221,147 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,606,000 after purchasing an additional 352,896 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Hormel Foods in the first quarter valued at $10,140,000. 40.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HRL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $32.00 price target on shares of Hormel Foods in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Citigroup cut their price target on Hormel Foods from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Hormel Foods from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $28.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, May 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Hormel Foods presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.67.

Hormel Foods Stock Performance

Shares of HRL traded up $0.41 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $32.87. 1,633,779 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,162,669. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $31.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $32.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.00. Hormel Foods Co. has a twelve month low of $28.51 and a twelve month high of $41.73. The company has a market capitalization of $18.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.48, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.24.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.97 billion. Hormel Foods had a return on equity of 11.31% and a net margin of 6.37%. The business’s revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Hormel Foods Co. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hormel Foods Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, July 15th will be given a $0.2825 dividend. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 15th. Hormel Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.71%.

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.