Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) Given “Neutral” Rating at BWS Financial

BWS Financial restated their neutral rating on shares of Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) in a report issued on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $122.00 price objective on the specialty chemicals company’s stock.

Hawkins Price Performance

Shares of HWKN stock opened at $106.40 on Thursday. Hawkins has a fifty-two week low of $53.64 and a fifty-two week high of $135.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.21, a PEG ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 2.27. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $122.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $103.73.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.16 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 firm had revenue of $247.03 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $259.59 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Hawkins will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hawkins Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. Hawkins’s payout ratio is 18.41%.

Institutional Trading of Hawkins

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Hawkins in the 1st quarter worth $31,504,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Hawkins by 22.4% during the 2nd 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. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Hawkins by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,516,717 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $106,807,000 after purchasing an additional 62,224 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Hawkins by 116.9% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 104,537 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $8,049,000 after purchasing an additional 56,330 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Hawkins during the 2nd quarter worth about $4,741,000. 69.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.