StockNews.com Upgrades Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) to Hold

Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI - Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued on Friday.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on HI. KeyCorp dropped their target price on Hillenbrand from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. DA Davidson reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $33.00 price objective on shares of Hillenbrand in a report on Friday, November 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $44.67.

Hillenbrand Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HI traded up $0.81 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $33.78. The stock had a trading volume of 496,795 shares, compared to its average volume of 393,044. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The company has a market cap of $2.37 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.03 and a beta of 1.38. Hillenbrand has a 1 year low of $25.11 and a 1 year high of $50.58. The business's 50 day moving average price is $28.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.81.

Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.08. Hillenbrand had a positive return on equity of 14.86% and a negative net margin of 6.63%. The business had revenue of $837.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $793.38 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.13 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Hillenbrand will post 3.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hillenbrand

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Hillenbrand by 3.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,702,418 shares of the company's stock worth $437,645,000 after buying an additional 290,275 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Hillenbrand by 2.4% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,873,289 shares of the company's stock worth $79,877,000 after buying an additional 66,741 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Hillenbrand by 0.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,739,689 shares of the company's stock worth $76,163,000 after buying an additional 19,546 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Hillenbrand by 13.1% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,184,077 shares of the company's stock worth $87,408,000 after purchasing an additional 253,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Hillenbrand by 0.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,602,744 shares of the company's stock worth $44,565,000 after purchasing an additional 6,682 shares during the last quarter. 89.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Hillenbrand Company Profile

Hillenbrand, Inc operates as an industrial company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Advanced Process Solutions and Molding Technology Solutions. The Advanced Process Solutions segment designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, and services process and material handling equipment and systems comprising compounding, extrusion, and material handling equipment, equipment system design services, as well as offers mixing technology, ingredient automation, and portion process; and provides screening and separating equipment for various industries, including plastics, food and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, fertilizers, minerals, energy, wastewater treatment, forest products, and other general industrials.