Inspire Investing LLC Sells 644 Shares of Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN)

Inspire Investing LLC cut its stake in shares of Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,233 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 644 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in Hawkins were worth $412,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. purchased a new position in Hawkins during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,504,000. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Hawkins by 22.4% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 360,714 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $32,825,000 after purchasing an additional 66,109 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 valued at $106,807,000 after purchasing an additional 62,224 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Hawkins by 116.9% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 104,537 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $8,049,000 after buying an additional 56,330 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hawkins in the second quarter worth $4,741,000. 69.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, BWS Financial cut Hawkins from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday.

Hawkins Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of HWKN opened at $133.98 on Friday. Hawkins, Inc. has a 1-year low of $53.64 and a 1-year high of $135.61. The company has a market capitalization of $2.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.32, a P/E/G ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.27 and a quick ratio of 1.44. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $100.59.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.37. Hawkins had a net margin of 8.75% and a return on equity of 20.16%. The firm had revenue of $255.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $254.30 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Hawkins, Inc. will post 4.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hawkins Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This is a boost from Hawkins’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Hawkins’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.06%.

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.