Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC Trims Position in Hawkins, Inc. $HWKN

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC trimmed its position in Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) by 38.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,595 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 5,382 shares during the quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Hawkins were worth $1,221,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of HWKN. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its holdings in Hawkins by 31.5% during the 1st 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. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Hawkins by 35.1% during the 2nd 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 purchasing an additional 123,030 shares in the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new position in shares of Hawkins in the second quarter worth $16,956,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hawkins in the first quarter worth $5,271,000. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in Hawkins by 83.2% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 38,416 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $4,069,000 after buying an additional 17,447 shares during the period. 69.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HWKN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on Hawkins in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Hawkins from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 5th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Hawkins from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Hawkins in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, BWS Financial raised their price objective on shares of Hawkins from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Hawkins has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $162.50.

Hawkins Stock Performance

NASDAQ:HWKN opened at $166.53 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.02, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50 day moving average of $171.87 and a 200 day moving average of $151.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 1.45. Hawkins, Inc. has a 1-year low of $98.30 and a 1-year high of $186.15.

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

Hawkins Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This is a positive change from Hawkins’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Hawkins’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.72%.

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.