Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) Receives $162.50 Consensus PT from Analysts

Shares of Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $162.50.

Several research firms have recently commented on HWKN. Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on shares of Hawkins in a report on Thursday, July 24th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Zacks Research cut shares of Hawkins from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. BWS Financial upped their price objective on shares of Hawkins from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Hawkins in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Hawkins from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 5th.

Hawkins Trading Down 4.1%

NASDAQ HWKN opened at $176.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 2.31. The company has a market capitalization of $3.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $172.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $145.60. Hawkins has a one year low of $98.30 and a one year high of $186.15.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $293.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $278.76 million. Hawkins had a net margin of 8.37% and a return on equity of 18.35%. Equities analysts forecast that Hawkins will post 4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hawkins Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.19 per share. This is a boost from Hawkins’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. Hawkins’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.72%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hawkins

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its position in Hawkins by 31.5% during the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 599,015 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $63,448,000 after acquiring an additional 143,425 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Hawkins by 1.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 478,348 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $67,981,000 after buying an additional 5,110 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Hawkins by 35.1% in the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 473,752 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $67,320,000 after buying an additional 123,030 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Hawkins by 50.3% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 282,349 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $40,122,000 after buying an additional 94,503 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GW&K Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Hawkins by 3.2% in the first quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 220,327 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $23,337,000 after buying an additional 6,832 shares during the last quarter. 69.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Hawkins Company 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.