HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) Short Interest Update

HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) was the target of a large drop in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 595,100 shares, a drop of 5.1% from the March 15th total of 627,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 270,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.2 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Larry B. Porcellato sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.00, for a total transaction of $88,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 40,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,791,592. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other HNI news, EVP Vincent P. Berger sold 9,976 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.01, for a total transaction of $429,067.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 67,025 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,882,745.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Larry B. Porcellato sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.00, for a total transaction of $88,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 40,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,791,592. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 17,374 shares of company stock worth $749,534. 3.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of HNI

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its stake in HNI by 24.4% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 9,726 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $337,000 after acquiring an additional 1,910 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in HNI by 0.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,276,579 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $182,728,000 after acquiring an additional 36,988 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund bought a new stake in HNI in the third quarter valued at about $947,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in HNI by 4.0% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 800,024 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $27,705,000 after acquiring an additional 30,475 shares during the period. Finally, L2 Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in HNI in the third quarter valued at about $1,251,000. Institutional investors own 75.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of HNI from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th.

HNI Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of HNI opened at $41.26 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.16. HNI has a 52 week low of $24.81 and a 52 week high of $45.47.

HNI (NYSE:HNI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $679.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $686.15 million. HNI had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 16.97%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that HNI will post 2.93 earnings per share for the current year.

HNI Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 26th were given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 23rd. HNI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 125.49%.

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.