Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) Short Interest Update

Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 466,800 shares, an increase of 8.5% from the November 30th total of 430,300 shares. Approximately 2.5% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 117,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.0 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HWKN. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Hawkins by 2.4% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 191,433 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $17,420,000 after purchasing an additional 4,398 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in Hawkins by 36.0% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 5,605 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $510,000 after buying an additional 1,483 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new position in Hawkins in the 2nd quarter worth $279,000. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in Hawkins by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 56,131 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $5,108,000 after acquiring an additional 2,447 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Hawkins by 45.1% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 89,026 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $8,101,000 after acquiring an additional 27,680 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, BWS Financial reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 target price on shares of Hawkins in a research note on Thursday, October 31st.

Hawkins Stock Performance

Shares of HWKN stock opened at $122.67 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.37, a PEG ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.27 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Hawkins has a fifty-two week low of $54.44 and a fifty-two week high of $139.55. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $125.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $117.54.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $247.03 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $259.59 million. Hawkins had a return on equity of 19.64% and a net margin of 8.74%. Analysts predict that Hawkins will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hawkins Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Hawkins’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.41%.

About Hawkins

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.