H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) Short Interest Update

H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,190,000 shares, a decrease of 7.4% from the October 15th total of 11,000,000 shares. Currently, 7.5% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,410,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other H&R Block news, VP Kellie J. Logerwell sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $515,280.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 18,474 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,189,910.34. This represents a 30.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jeffrey J. Jones II sold 9,722 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.07, for a total transaction of $613,166.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 893,169 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,332,168.83. This represents a 1.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of H&R Block

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in H&R Block by 11.8% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,295,911 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,081,000 after purchasing an additional 558,076 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in H&R Block by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,936,829 shares of the company’s stock worth $313,735,000 after purchasing an additional 255,354 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its stake in H&R Block by 30.2% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,270,919 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,614,000 after purchasing an additional 758,827 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in H&R Block by 52.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,738,190 shares of the company’s stock worth $148,492,000 after purchasing an additional 939,270 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in H&R Block by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,484,417 shares of the company’s stock worth $134,726,000 after purchasing an additional 23,792 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.14% of the company’s stock.

H&R Block Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of H&R Block stock opened at $60.39 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.58. H&R Block has a 12-month low of $42.28 and a 12-month high of $68.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.46. The stock has a market cap of $8.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.73, a PEG ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 0.67.

H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($1.17) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.13) by ($0.04). H&R Block had a net margin of 16.19% and a negative return on equity of 212.45%. The company had revenue of $193.81 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $188.78 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($1.05) EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that H&R Block will post 5.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

H&R Block Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.375 per share. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.48%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. H&R Block’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.59%.

H&R Block announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, August 15th that allows the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 16.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on HRB. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of H&R Block in a research report on Friday, November 8th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of H&R Block from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of H&R Block from $39.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th.

About H&R Block

H&R Block, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides assisted income tax return preparation and do-it-yourself (DIY) tax return preparation services and products to the general public primarily in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It offers assisted income tax return preparation and related services through a system of retail offices operated directly by the company or its franchisees.