Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) Short Interest Update

Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 407,000 shares, a growth of 8.2% from the October 15th total of 376,300 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 117,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.5 days. Currently, 2.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Hawkins Stock Performance

NASDAQ HWKN opened at $124.18 on Tuesday. Hawkins has a 52-week low of $54.44 and a 52-week high of $135.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 2.27. The company has a market capitalization of $2.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.76, a P/E/G ratio of 4.29 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a fifty day moving average of $122.26 and a 200-day moving average of $107.62.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by ($0.02). Hawkins had a return on equity of 19.64% and a net margin of 8.74%. The company had revenue of $247.03 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $259.59 million. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Hawkins will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hawkins Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. Hawkins’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.41%.

Institutional Trading of Hawkins

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. bought a new stake in Hawkins in the first quarter worth $31,504,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Hawkins by 22.4% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 360,714 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $32,825,000 after purchasing an additional 66,109 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Hawkins in the second quarter worth $4,741,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Hawkins by 20.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 256,245 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $32,663,000 after purchasing an additional 44,351 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new stake in Hawkins in the third quarter worth $5,528,000. 69.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, BWS Financial restated a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 price target on shares of Hawkins in a research report on Thursday, October 31st.

Hawkins Company Profile

Hawkins, Inc operates as a specialty chemical and ingredients company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Industrial, Water Treatment, and Health and Nutrition. The Industrial segment offers industrial chemicals, products, and services to agriculture, chemical processing, electronics, energy, food, pharmaceutical, and plating industries.