Hillman Solutions Corp (NASDAQ:HLMN) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Hillman Solutions Corp (NASDAQ:HLMN) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 3,490,000 shares, a growth of 47.9% from the February 13th total of 2,360,000 shares. Approximately 1.8% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 979,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Hillman Solutions by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 9,158,013 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,199,000 after buying an additional 509,016 shares in the last quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in Hillman Solutions by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 8,876,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,452,000 after buying an additional 160,505 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. lifted its position in Hillman Solutions by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 7,612,474 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,145,000 after buying an additional 130,273 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Hillman Solutions by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,419,079 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,521,000 after buying an additional 605,049 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Hillman Solutions by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,753,174 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,203,000 after buying an additional 113,692 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.11% of the company’s stock.

Hillman Solutions Price Performance

Shares of HLMN traded down $0.08 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $9.17. The stock had a trading volume of 652,783 shares, compared to its average volume of 866,577. The company’s fifty day moving average is $9.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 2.32 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Hillman Solutions has a 52 week low of $8.43 and a 52 week high of $12.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 114.64 and a beta of 1.68.

Hillman Solutions (NASDAQ:HLMN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.11 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $349.56 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $350.45 million. Hillman Solutions had a return on equity of 8.79% and a net margin of 1.17%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.10 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Hillman Solutions will post 0.58 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on HLMN shares. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $16.00 price target on shares of Hillman Solutions in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. William Blair lowered shares of Hillman Solutions from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Hillman Solutions from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Hillman Solutions from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $13.60.

About Hillman Solutions

Founded in 1964 and headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Hillman is a leading North American provider of complete hardware solutions, delivered with industry best customer service to over 40,000 locations. Hillman designs innovative product and merchandising solutions for complex categories that deliver an outstanding customer experience to home improvement centers, mass merchants, national and regional hardware stores, pet supply stores, and OEM & Industrial customers.