Ameriprise Financial Inc. Trims Stake in H.B. Fuller (NYSE:FUL)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of H.B. Fuller (NYSE:FUL) by 7.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 130,954 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 10,596 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned about 0.24% of H.B. Fuller worth $8,837,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of H.B. Fuller by 128.8% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 899 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of H.B. Fuller by 731.1% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,255 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $85,000 after purchasing an additional 1,104 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of H.B. Fuller in the fourth quarter worth $266,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of H.B. Fuller in the fourth quarter worth $465,000. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of H.B. Fuller in the fourth quarter worth $783,000. 95.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FUL. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of H.B. Fuller from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of H.B. Fuller from $75.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Baird R W raised shares of H.B. Fuller from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of H.B. Fuller from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of H.B. Fuller from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, H.B. Fuller presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.50.

H.B. Fuller Stock Performance

FUL opened at $56.25 on Wednesday. H.B. Fuller has a fifty-two week low of $47.56 and a fifty-two week high of $87.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.81. The company has a fifty day moving average of $54.25 and a 200 day moving average of $62.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.35, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.13.

H.B. Fuller (NYSE:FUL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 26th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. H.B. Fuller had a net margin of 3.65% and a return on equity of 12.01%. The business had revenue of $788.66 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $769.55 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.67 earnings per share. H.B. Fuller’s quarterly revenue was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that H.B. Fuller will post 4.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

H.B. Fuller Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th were given a dividend of $0.235 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. This is a positive change from H.B. Fuller’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. H.B. Fuller’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling at H.B. Fuller

In other news, CEO Celeste Beeks Mastin bought 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $56.66 per share, for a total transaction of $198,310.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 3,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $198,310. The trade was a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

H.B. Fuller Profile

H.B. Fuller Company, together with its subsidiaries, formulates, manufactures, and markets adhesives, sealants, coatings, polymers, tapes, encapsulants, additives, and other specialty chemical products. It operates through three segments: Hygiene, Health and Consumable Adhesives; Engineering Adhesives; and Construction Adhesives.