Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Sells 400 Shares of Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lessened its position in shares of Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,200 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Hawkins were worth $1,173,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of HWKN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Hawkins by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,516,717 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $106,807,000 after acquiring an additional 62,224 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Hawkins by 146.0% in the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 11,341 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $871,000 after acquiring an additional 6,731 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in Hawkins by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 22,640 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,739,000 after acquiring an additional 922 shares in the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Hawkins during the first quarter worth $213,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Hawkins by 116.9% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 104,537 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $8,049,000 after buying an additional 56,330 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, BWS Financial reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 target price on shares of Hawkins in a report on Thursday.

Hawkins Price Performance

Hawkins stock opened at $106.40 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $103.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 2.27. 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 $2.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.77.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.16 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.18 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $247.03 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $259.59 million. Hawkins had a net margin of 8.74% and a return on equity of 19.64%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Hawkins, Inc. will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Hawkins Announces Dividend

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

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.