Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.29

Hormel Foods Co. (NYSE:HRL) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, March 24th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.29 per share on Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.96%.

Hormel Foods has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.6% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 59 years. Hormel Foods has a dividend payout ratio of 64.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Hormel Foods to earn $1.84 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.16 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 63.0%.

Hormel Foods Price Performance

HRL stock traded down $0.70 during trading on Monday, hitting $29.29. The stock had a trading volume of 4,098,042 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,425,577. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $29.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.75. Hormel Foods has a twelve month low of $27.59 and a twelve month high of $36.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.06, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 2.32 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on HRL. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $31.00 target price on shares of Hormel Foods in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays upgraded shares of Hormel Foods from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.80.

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.