Inspire Investing LLC Reduces Holdings in HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI)

Inspire Investing LLC lowered its stake in HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) by 71.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,865 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 19,506 shares during the quarter. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in HNI were worth $354,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of HNI by 184.7% in the first quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 102,330 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,618,000 after acquiring an additional 66,387 shares in the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its stake in shares of HNI by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 40,765 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 544 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of HNI by 30.4% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 47,936 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,163,000 after buying an additional 11,168 shares in the last quarter. Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC raised its position in shares of HNI by 58.0% in the fourth quarter. Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC now owns 51,867 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,170,000 after buying an additional 19,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of HNI by 86.6% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 35,859 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,618,000 after buying an additional 16,646 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on HNI shares. Benchmark lifted their target price on shares of HNI from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com raised HNI from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th.

HNI Price Performance

HNI opened at $52.30 on Monday. HNI Co. has a 1 year low of $32.70 and a 1 year high of $56.13. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $46.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.47 billion, a PE ratio of 38.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.20.

HNI (NYSE:HNI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The business services provider reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $623.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $637.74 million. HNI had a net margin of 4.39% and a return on equity of 19.15%. HNI’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.55 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that HNI Co. will post 3.17 EPS for the current year.

HNI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 23rd were given a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 23rd. HNI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 97.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Jeffrey D. Lorenger sold 72,102 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.32, for a total transaction of $3,556,070.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 296,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,642,713.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other HNI news, Director Larry B. Porcellato sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.01, for a total value of $96,020.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 39,725 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,907,197.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey D. Lorenger sold 72,102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.32, for a total value of $3,556,070.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 296,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,642,713.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 134,029 shares of company stock worth $6,766,593 over the last three months. 3.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

HNI Company Profile

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.