William Blair Investment Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI)

William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 782,667 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,256 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Hillenbrand were worth $24,090,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HI. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Hillenbrand during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. YANKCOM Partnership purchased a new stake in Hillenbrand during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hillenbrand by 107.5% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 614 shares in the last quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Hillenbrand in the fourth quarter valued at about $54,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hillenbrand by 161.6% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,842 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 1,138 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.09% of the company’s stock.

Hillenbrand Stock Down 3.8 %

Shares of NYSE HI opened at $24.96 on Wednesday. Hillenbrand, Inc. has a 12-month low of $24.64 and a 12-month high of $50.58. The company has a market capitalization of $1.76 billion, a PE ratio of -7.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $31.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.37.

Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.02. Hillenbrand had a negative net margin of 7.12% and a positive return on equity of 15.00%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.69 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Hillenbrand, Inc. will post 2.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hillenbrand Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.225 per share. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Hillenbrand’s payout ratio is -28.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Hillenbrand from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th.

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.