Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) Cut to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday morning.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from $320.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and set a $362.00 target price on shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries in a research report on Friday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Huntington Ingalls Industries from $316.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Melius upgraded Huntington Ingalls Industries from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $325.75.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Stock Up 2.9%

HII stock opened at $398.39 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $329.28 and a 200-day moving average of $292.47. Huntington Ingalls Industries has a fifty-two week low of $158.88 and a fifty-two week high of $399.61. The company has a market capitalization of $15.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.51, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.14.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The aerospace company reported $3.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.29 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $3.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.95 billion. Huntington Ingalls Industries had a return on equity of 11.79% and a net margin of 4.74%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.56 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Huntington Ingalls Industries will post 13.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 28th were issued a dividend of $1.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 28th. This is a positive change from Huntington Ingalls Industries’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.35. This represents a $5.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Huntington Ingalls Industries’s payout ratio is presently 38.12%.

Insider Activity at Huntington Ingalls Industries

In other news, CAO Nicolas G. Schuck sold 466 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.36, for a total value of $146,491.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 2,418 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $760,122.48. This represents a 16.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Chad N. Boudreaux sold 787 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.17, for a total transaction of $247,251.79. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 20,441 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,421,948.97. This represents a 3.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 17,103 shares of company stock worth $5,477,768 over the last quarter. 0.86% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Huntington Ingalls Industries

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Peddock Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries in the 2nd quarter worth $483,000. Buttonwood Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Huntington Ingalls Industries during the second quarter valued at $253,000. Revisor Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Huntington Ingalls Industries during the second quarter valued at $374,000. Korea Investment CORP bought a new position in Huntington Ingalls Industries in the second quarter valued at about $1,604,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd purchased a new position in Huntington Ingalls Industries in the second quarter worth about $243,000. Institutional investors own 90.46% of the company’s stock.

About Huntington Ingalls Industries

Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII) is America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a leading provider of professional services to the U.S. government. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII designs, constructs and maintains nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, submarines and other complex vessels for the U.S. Navy. The company’s products include nuclear aircraft carriers, Virginia-class and Columbia-class submarines, as well as amphibious assault ships, destroyers and cutters.

Established in 2011 as a spin-off from Northrop Grumman’s shipbuilding operations, HII traces its heritage to two historic builders: Newport News Shipbuilding, founded in the 19th century, and Ingalls Shipbuilding, founded in 1938.