Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) Short Interest Update

Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) saw a large drop in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,110,000 shares, a drop of 10.6% from the October 15th total of 7,950,000 shares. Currently, 2.5% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,220,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hormel Foods news, SVP Kevin L. Myers sold 10,000 shares of Hormel Foods stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.70, for a total transaction of $327,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,050 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,276,935. The trade was a 20.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Steven J. Lykken sold 9,800 shares of Hormel Foods stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.91, for a total transaction of $312,718.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 30,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $976,094.99. This trade represents 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 worth $2,288,338 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Hormel Foods

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its stake in shares of Hormel Foods by 8.8% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 155,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,920,000 after buying an additional 12,596 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Hormel Foods by 11.2% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 54,129 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,715,000 after purchasing an additional 5,459 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Hormel Foods by 1.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,362,658 shares of the company’s stock valued at $232,646,000 after purchasing an additional 120,212 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Hormel Foods by 15.4% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,209,962 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,356,000 after purchasing an additional 161,431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC increased its stake in Hormel Foods by 4.8% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 9,108 shares of the company’s stock valued at $289,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares during the last quarter. 40.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on HRL. BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of Hormel Foods in a report on Monday, October 21st. They set an “underperform” rating and a $28.00 target price for the company. Citigroup raised shares of Hormel Foods from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $33.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Stephens started coverage on shares of Hormel Foods in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $31.00 price target on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Hormel Foods has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.57.

Hormel Foods Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE HRL traded up $0.19 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $29.40. The company had a trading volume of 2,840,904 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,594,595. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $31.17 and a 200 day moving average of $31.85. Hormel Foods has a 1-year low of $28.51 and a 1-year high of $36.86. The company has a current ratio of 2.29, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.26.

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. Hormel Foods had a net margin of 6.52% and a return on equity of 11.03%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Hormel Foods will post 1.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hormel Foods Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.282 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.84%. Hormel Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.58%.

About Hormel Foods

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.