Hawkins, Inc. $HWKN Shares Sold by PFG Investments LLC

PFG Investments LLC cut its holdings in shares of Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) by 45.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,011 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 6,800 shares during the quarter. PFG Investments LLC’s holdings in Hawkins were worth $1,138,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its holdings in Hawkins by 31.5% in the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 599,015 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $63,448,000 after acquiring an additional 143,425 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Hawkins in the second quarter valued at approximately $16,956,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 37.6% in the first quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 350,722 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $37,148,000 after purchasing an additional 95,885 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in Hawkins by 157,110.0% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 94,326 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $9,991,000 after buying an additional 94,266 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Hawkins during the first quarter worth $5,271,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on HWKN. Zacks Research downgraded Hawkins from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Hawkins from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 5th. BWS Financial raised 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. Finally, Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on shares of Hawkins in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $162.50.

Hawkins Stock Performance

NASDAQ HWKN opened at $181.93 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $171.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $143.77. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The stock has a market cap of $3.80 billion, a PE ratio of 44.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.84. Hawkins, Inc. has a twelve month low of $98.30 and a twelve month high of $185.50.

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

Hawkins Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a $0.19 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. This is an increase from Hawkins’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. 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.