HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 709,000 shares, an increase of 6.0% from the May 31st total of 668,900 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 208,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Larry B. Porcellato sold 1,796 shares of HNI stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.00, for a total transaction of $82,616.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 39,100 shares in the company, valued at $1,798,600. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Marshall H. Bridges sold 8,551 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.50, for a total value of $389,070.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,488,667. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Larry B. Porcellato sold 1,796 shares of HNI stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.00, for a total transaction of $82,616.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 39,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,798,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,349 shares of company stock valued at $931,479 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. USA Financial Formulas bought a new stake in HNI in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of HNI in the 4th quarter worth $42,000. Northwest Financial Advisors bought a new stake in shares of HNI in the 4th quarter worth about $134,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of HNI during the 1st quarter valued at about $202,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in shares of HNI in the 3rd quarter valued at about $207,000. 75.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Benchmark boosted their price objective on HNI from $54.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. StockNews.com cut HNI from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th.

HNI Stock Performance

HNI opened at $44.86 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.23, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a fifty day moving average of $44.76 and a 200 day moving average of $43.26. HNI has a fifty-two week low of $27.24 and a fifty-two week high of $47.60.

HNI (NYSE:HNI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $588.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $574.56 million. HNI had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 2.57%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.13 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that HNI will post 3.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HNI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 24th were paid a $0.33 dividend. This is an increase from HNI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.94%. HNI’s payout ratio is presently 97.78%.

About HNI

HNI Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture, sale, and marketing of workplace furnishings and residential building products primarily in the United States and Canada. The company operates through two segments, Workplace Furnishings and Residential Building Products. The Workplace Furnishings segment offers a range of commercial and home office furniture, including panel-based and freestanding furniture systems, seating, storage, benching, tables, architectural products, and ancillary and hospitality products, as well as social collaborative items under the HON, Allsteel, Beyond, Gunlocke, HBF, HBF Textiles, HNI India, Kimball, National, Etc., Interwoven, David Edward, Kimball Hospitality, and D'style brands.