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

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 40,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,954,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in HRB. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its position in shares of H&R Block by 91.9% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 518 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. First Republic Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of H&R Block by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. First Republic Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,927 shares of the company’s stock valued at $216,000 after buying an additional 284 shares in the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. lifted its position in shares of H&R Block by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 11,966 shares of the company’s stock valued at $579,000 after buying an additional 291 shares in the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of H&R Block by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 8,117 shares of the company’s stock valued at $350,000 after buying an additional 302 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of H&R Block by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 34,273 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,658,000 after buying an additional 328 shares in the last quarter. 90.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted 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 raised H&R Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th.

H&R Block Price Performance

Shares of HRB opened at $46.57 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.83, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $47.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.16.

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

H&R Block Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at H&R Block

In other news, CEO Jeffrey J. Jones II sold 85,921 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 755,359 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,171,216.39. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

H&R Block Company 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.