Wedbush Securities Inc. Grows Stake in Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN)

Wedbush Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) by 47.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,164 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 1,011 shares during the period. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Hawkins were worth $388,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HWKN. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 155.4% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 355 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Hawkins by 262.3% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 442 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the period. TD Private Client Wealth LLC grew its stake in Hawkins by 242.5% during the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 459 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $59,000 after buying an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in Hawkins by 37.0% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 948 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $116,000 after buying an additional 256 shares during the period. Finally, Longboard Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in Hawkins in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on HWKN. CJS Securities began coverage on shares of Hawkins in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued a “market outperform” rating and a $125.00 target price on the stock. BWS Financial restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $122.00 price objective on shares of Hawkins in a research note on Friday, January 31st.

Hawkins Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of HWKN stock opened at $103.32 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The business’s 50 day moving average is $107.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $117.99. Hawkins, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.98 and a twelve month high of $139.55.

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

Hawkins Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Hawkins’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.37%.

Hawkins Profile

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.