Today Barrons is reporting: "Hormel Foods and HP declared dividend increases in a light week for such announcements before the Thanksgiving holiday. Hormel Foods ( ticker: HRL ) said it would increase its annual dividend by 6%. The company's annual payout will get bumped up to $1.10 a share from $1.04." For full coverage click here. Shares of the large-cap Consumer Defensive company did move much on the news and are currently priced at $49.41.
Hormel Foods Corporation develops, processes, and distributes various meat, nuts, and food products to retail, foodservice, deli, and commercial customers in the United States and internationally. The company belongs to the Consumer Defensive sector, which has an average price to earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.21 and an average price to book (P/B) ratio of 4.09. In contrast, Hormel Foods has a trailing 12 month P/E ratio of 27.1 and a P/B ratio of 3.7.
Hormel Foods has moved 16.3% over the last year compared to -13.5% for the S&P 500 -- a difference of 29.8%. Hormel Foods has a 52 week high of $55.11 and a 52 week low of $41.25. At today's price of $49.41 per share, Hormel Foods is 6.9% away from its target price of $46.22, and on average, analysts give the stock a rating of hold.3.1% of the company's shares are linked to short positions, and 41.3% of the shares are owned by institutional investors.
