Short Interest in Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI) Rises By 16.7%

Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,100,000 shares, an increase of 16.7% from the May 31st total of 1,800,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 317,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.6 days. Currently, 3.0% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Hillenbrand Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of HI opened at $38.26 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.62 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.34. Hillenbrand has a fifty-two week low of $37.19 and a fifty-two week high of $53.67. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $43.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $45.96.

Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $785.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $801.55 million. Hillenbrand had a net margin of 2.79% and a return on equity of 14.75%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.74 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Hillenbrand will post 3.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Hillenbrand Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a dividend of $0.222 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $0.89 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.32%. Hillenbrand’s dividend payout ratio is currently 73.55%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Robert M. Vanhimbergen acquired 2,400 shares of Hillenbrand stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was bought at an average price of $42.58 per share, with a total value of $102,192.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 48,794 shares in the company, valued at $2,077,648.52. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Robert M. Vanhimbergen acquired 2,400 shares of Hillenbrand stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was bought at an average price of $42.58 per share, with a total value of $102,192.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 48,794 shares in the company, valued at $2,077,648.52. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kimberly K. Ryan acquired 2,350 shares of Hillenbrand stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $42.69 per share, with a total value of $100,321.50. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 135,954 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,803,876.26. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have acquired a total of 6,537 shares of company stock valued at $278,193 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hillenbrand

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Hillenbrand by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,702,418 shares of the company’s stock worth $437,645,000 after purchasing an additional 290,275 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Hillenbrand by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,885,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $138,058,000 after purchasing an additional 283,608 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Hillenbrand by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,747,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,605,000 after purchasing an additional 120,782 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Hillenbrand by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 868,965 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,580,000 after purchasing an additional 39,697 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Hillenbrand in the 4th quarter worth $40,130,000. 89.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Hillenbrand

Hillenbrand, Inc operates as an industrial company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Advanced Process Solutions and Molding Technology Solutions. The Advanced Process Solutions segment designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, and services process and material handling equipment and systems comprising compounding, extrusion, and material handling equipment, equipment system design services, as well as offers mixing technology, ingredient automation, and portion process; and provides screening and separating equipment for various industries, including plastics, food and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, fertilizers, minerals, energy, wastewater treatment, forest products, and other general industrials.