New York State Common Retirement Fund Trims Stock Holdings in H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB)

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its stake in shares of H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) by 12.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 132,869 shares of the company’s stock after selling 18,288 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.09% of H&R Block worth $6,427,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in H&R Block by 91.9% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 518 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in H&R Block by 1,200.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 650 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new stake in H&R Block during the fourth quarter valued at about $48,000. HM Payson & Co. purchased a new position in shares of H&R Block in the third quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of H&R Block in the fourth quarter worth about $53,000. 90.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

H&R Block Price Performance

NYSE HRB opened at $47.52 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.63 billion, a PE ratio of 13.09, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.69. H&R Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $52.90. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $47.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $46.52.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on HRB. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on H&R Block from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of H&R Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of H&R Block in a report on Wednesday.

Insider Activity

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 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.20% of the company’s stock.

About H&R Block

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.