Short Interest in Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) Decreases By 31.3%

Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 645,100 shares, a decrease of 31.3% from the February 13th total of 939,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 136,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.7 days. Approximately 3.4% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, BWS Financial reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $122.00 price target on shares of Hawkins in a research note on Friday, January 31st.

Hawkins Stock Performance

NASDAQ:HWKN opened at $106.79 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 2.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.24, a PEG ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $110.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $119.55. Hawkins has a fifty-two week low of $71.20 and a fifty-two week high of $139.55.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.77 by ($0.05). Hawkins had a net margin of 8.60% and a return on equity of 18.95%. Equities research analysts forecast that Hawkins will post 4 EPS for the current year.

Hawkins Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Hawkins’s payout ratio is 18.37%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hawkins

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Wasatch Advisors LP acquired a new stake in Hawkins during the 4th quarter worth $42,466,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in Hawkins by 487.7% during the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 254,837 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $31,260,000 after acquiring an additional 211,472 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Hawkins during the 4th quarter worth $13,087,000. Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in Hawkins by 900.2% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 82,576 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $10,166,000 after acquiring an additional 74,320 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in Hawkins by 291.5% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 86,100 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $10,562,000 after acquiring an additional 64,110 shares in the last quarter. 69.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.