Renaissance Technologies LLC Has $50.63 Million Stake in Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL)

Renaissance Technologies LLC cut its position in shares of Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) by 42.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,660,687 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,213,300 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned about 0.30% of Hormel Foods worth $50,634,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Hormel Foods during the 4th quarter worth about $62,323,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased 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 worth $93,151,000 after purchasing an additional 1,434,437 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Hormel Foods by 24.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,976,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,738,000 after buying an additional 575,378 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Hormel Foods by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 5,638,546 shares of the company’s stock worth $196,729,000 after buying an additional 505,942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vest Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Hormel Foods by 40.6% during the 1st quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 1,221,147 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,606,000 after buying an additional 352,896 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 40.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HRL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Hormel Foods from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $32.00 target price on shares of Hormel Foods in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Citigroup raised Hormel Foods from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $33.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.33.

Hormel Foods Price Performance

HRL stock opened at $32.37 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 2.29. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.96. The company has a market capitalization of $17.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.25. Hormel Foods Co. has a 52-week low of $28.51 and a 52-week high of $39.58.

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

Insider Activity

In other Hormel Foods news, EVP Deanna T. Brady sold 51,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 72,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,313,850.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.