H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB)
H&R Block, Inc. (HRB), a tax preparation and banking company yesterday reported their fiscal fourth quarter 2016 financial results. H&R Block reported fourth quarter earnings of $3.16 per share which fell short of analyst expectations of $3.17 per share. H&R Block reported fourth quarter revenues decreased 0.2% year over year to $2.3 billion which beat analyst expectations of $2.28 billion. H&R Block also announced that have increased their dividend 10% to $0.22 per share.
H&R Block, Inc. CEO’s Comments
“As I said in April, this season’s results are not acceptable,” said Bill Cobb, H&R Block’s president and chief executive officer. “We are ready to move on. Going forward, we are committed to arresting the client decline and ultimately achieving client growth. We are developing aggressive plans for tax season 2017 that we believe will enable us to achieve this objective. I’m excited about the future for this company and the plans we are working on for next tax season,” said Cobb. “These plans will challenge us to think differently about certain parts of our business, while building on those areas of the business in which we were successful, such as pricing, mix, improved product attach levels, and the successful launch of our new Block Advisors brand. And having divested H&R Block Bank, we’ll execute against those plans with the right capital structure, which reflects the repurchase of 20.5% of our outstanding shares during fiscal 2016 and the 10% increase in our quarterly dividend.” Market Wired
HRB Technical Analysis
HRB opened trading yesterday at $21.01 which was the same price as the previous days trading. HRB closed trading yesterday at $21.54 and spiked up after market to $22.90, equivalent to a 6% increase from the closing price. Taking a look at the daily chart we can see the last time HRB traded above these levels was on April 26th when it traded at $23.82 . Taking a closer look at the daily chart we can see that HRB has been on a downward trend dating back to February 5th when it traded at $34.98. HRB has a float of 223.36 million shares and traded 1.77 times the normal daily trading volume on Thursday. For trading purposes, I would like to see HRB open trading on Friday above $22.50 and if it does I would be looking to take a long position at the bell. My stop loss would be $0.20 from my entry position fearing anything more than that and the stock would start to fill in the gap up.
Company Profile
H&R Block, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides tax preparation, banking, and other services to the general public primarily in the United States, Canada, and Australia. The company offers assisted income tax return preparation and related services through a system of retail offices operated directly by the company or by franchisees; and online tax services, such as tax advice, professional and do-it-yourself (DIY) tax return preparation, and electronic filing services through its Website hrblock.com. It also develops and markets DIY desktop income tax preparation software; and develops and provides applications for mobile devices, which offer tax and related services. In addition, the company provides refund anticipation checks, H&R Block Emerald Advance lines of credit and Prepaid MasterCard, and Peace of Mind Extended Service Plan, Tax Identity Shield, and Cash Back refund discount programs. Further, it offers traditional retail banking services primarily to its assisted and DIY tax clients. The company was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Yahoo Finance
