Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 665,400 shares, an increase of 63.5% from the October 31st total of 407,000 shares. Approximately 3.5% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 119,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Hawkins in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $31,504,000. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Hawkins by 22.4% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 360,714 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $32,825,000 after acquiring an additional 66,109 shares in the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hawkins during the 2nd quarter worth $4,741,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 20.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 256,245 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $32,663,000 after purchasing an additional 44,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Hawkins in the 3rd quarter valued at $5,528,000. 69.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, BWS Financial restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $122.00 target price on shares of Hawkins in a report on Thursday, October 31st.

Hawkins Price Performance

Shares of HWKN opened at $133.39 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $124.13 and its 200-day moving average is $110.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.27 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The company has a market capitalization of $2.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.12, a P/E/G ratio of 4.70 and a beta of 0.77. Hawkins has a fifty-two week low of $54.44 and a fifty-two week high of $138.86.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.18 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $247.03 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $259.59 million. Hawkins had a net margin of 8.74% and a return on equity of 19.64%. Equities research analysts expect that Hawkins will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hawkins Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be given 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 yield of 0.54%. Hawkins’s payout ratio is 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.