Short Interest in Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII) Grows By 5.5%

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 928,900 shares, an increase of 5.5% from the November 30th total of 880,600 shares. Approximately 2.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 539,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.7 days.

Insider Activity at Huntington Ingalls Industries

In other Huntington Ingalls Industries news, VP D R. Wyatt sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.24, for a total value of $82,096.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 19,627 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,028,245.48. This represents a 2.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.72% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Huntington Ingalls Industries

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC raised its stake in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,519,111 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $930,383,000 after buying an additional 187,411 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 94.5% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,778,210 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $455,222,000 after acquiring an additional 863,800 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 0.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,018,812 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $268,520,000 after acquiring an additional 5,036 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 41.6% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 732,587 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $180,458,000 after acquiring an additional 215,362 shares during the period. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC boosted its position in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 1.9% in the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 638,680 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $157,326,000 after purchasing an additional 11,693 shares during the last quarter. 90.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on HII. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from $250.00 to $195.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Wolfe Research lowered Huntington Ingalls Industries from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com downgraded Huntington Ingalls Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from $290.00 to $220.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors lowered shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $210.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $228.89.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Stock Up 0.3 %

NYSE:HII opened at $188.97 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $200.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $240.20. The firm has a market cap of $7.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.55. Huntington Ingalls Industries has a fifty-two week low of $184.29 and a fifty-two week high of $299.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The aerospace company reported $2.56 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.84 by ($1.28). Huntington Ingalls Industries had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 5.99%. The firm had revenue of $2.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.70 earnings per share. Huntington Ingalls Industries’s revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Huntington Ingalls Industries will post 14.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were given a dividend of $1.35 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This is a boost from Huntington Ingalls Industries’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.30. This represents a $5.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.86%. Huntington Ingalls Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.49%.

About Huntington Ingalls Industries

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc designs, builds, overhauls, and repairs military ships in the United States. It operates through three segments: Ingalls, Newport News, and Mission Technologies. The company is involved in the design and construction of non-nuclear ships comprising amphibious assault ships; expeditionary warfare ships; surface combatants; and national security cutters for the U.S.