Somewhat Favorable Press Coverage Somewhat Unlikely to Impact H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) Stock Price

Media coverage about H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) has trended somewhat positive on Monday, according to Accern Sentiment Analysis. The research firm scores the sentiment of news coverage by analyzing more than twenty million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. H&R Block earned a news sentiment score of 0.23 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news headlines about the company an impact score of 44.6732210021273 out of 100, meaning that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the company’s share price in the near future.

These are some of the headlines that may have effected Accern’s scoring:

• H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB) Experiences Lighter than Average Trading Volume(highlightpress.com)
• Edgewell Personal Care Company (NYSE:EPC) and H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE:HRB): How Do These Stocks Rank Value … – Evergreen Caller (evergreencaller.com)
• 29.4% Return Seen to Date on SmarTrend H&R Block Inc Call (HRB) (mysmartrend.com)
• Watchdog Report: IRS Continues To Rehire Problem Employees (finance.yahoo.com)
• Top Ranked Value Stocks to Buy for July 27th (zacks.com)

H&R Block (HRB) traded up 0.347% during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $30.335. 518,397 shares of the company were exchanged. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $30.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.932 and a beta of 0.54. H&R Block has a 1-year low of $19.85 and a 1-year high of $31.70.

H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 13th. The company reported $3.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.53 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $2.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.32 billion. H&R Block had a negative return on equity of 104.14% and a net margin of 13.47%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.16 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that H&R Block will post $1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 23rd were paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 21st. This is a boost from H&R Block’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. H&R Block’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.76%.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HRB. BidaskClub lowered shares of H&R Block from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 16th. BTIG Research boosted their target price on shares of H&R Block from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 14th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of H&R Block from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 14th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of H&R Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of H&R Block from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.67.

In other news, Director James F. Wright sold 10,000 shares of H&R Block stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.67, for a total value of $306,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 40,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,247,532.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David B. Lewis sold 8,000 shares of H&R Block stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.01, for a total value of $240,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 82,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,463,310.83. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,473,471 shares of company stock valued at $45,309,203 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

H&R Block Company Profile

H&R Block, Inc (H&R Block), through its subsidiaries, provides tax preparation and other services. The Company provides assisted income tax return preparation, digital do-it-yourself (DIY) tax solutions and other services and products related to income tax return preparation to the general public primarily in the United States, Canada, Australia and their respective territories.