Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) Short Interest Down 31.3% in February

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hawkins

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Hawkins by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 755,995 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $96,367,000 after buying an additional 38,877 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Hawkins by 3.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 523,514 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $66,743,000 after acquiring an additional 18,119 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Hawkins in the fourth quarter worth about $42,466,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Hawkins by 20.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 256,245 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $32,663,000 after purchasing an additional 44,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 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 valued at $31,260,000 after purchasing an additional 211,472 shares during the period. 69.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, BWS Financial reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 price target on shares of Hawkins in a report on Friday, January 31st.

Hawkins Stock Performance

Hawkins stock traded down $1.21 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $106.79. 81,498 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 120,555. Hawkins has a 12-month low of $71.20 and a 12-month high of $139.55. The business’s 50-day moving average is $110.16 and its 200-day moving average is $119.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.50 and a quick ratio of 1.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.24 billion, a PE ratio of 27.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.77.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.77 by ($0.05). Hawkins had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 8.60%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Hawkins will post 4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hawkins Announces Dividend

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

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.