40,400 Shares in H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) Purchased by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 40,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,954,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Trexquant Investment LP raised its position in H&R Block by 198.1% during the third quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 223,138 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,608,000 after acquiring an additional 148,274 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of H&R Block by 33.0% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 155,054 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,500,000 after buying an additional 38,476 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of H&R Block in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,228,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of H&R Block by 14.2% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 514,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,162,000 after buying an additional 63,942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AXQ Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of H&R Block in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,184,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on HRB. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on H&R Block from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com upgraded H&R Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th.

H&R Block Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HRB opened at $46.57 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $47.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $46.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.50 billion, a PE ratio of 12.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.70. H&R Block, Inc. has a 1 year low of $28.83 and a 1 year high of $52.90.

H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported ($1.27) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.58) by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $179.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $169.45 million. H&R Block had a negative return on equity of 227.22% and a net margin of 16.98%. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($1.37) earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that H&R Block, Inc. will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current year.

H&R Block Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 4th. H&R Block’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.26%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other H&R Block news, CEO Jeffrey J. Jones II sold 85,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.21, for a total transaction of $4,228,172.41. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 755,359 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,171,216.39. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

H&R Block Profile

H&R Block, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides assisted income tax return preparation and do-it-yourself (DIY) tax return preparation services and products to the general public primarily in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It offers assisted income tax return preparation and related services through a system of retail offices operated directly by the company or its franchisees.