Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN - Get Free Report) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 466,800 shares, a growth of 8.5% from the November 30th total of 430,300 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 117,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.0 days. Currently, 2.5% of the company's stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, BWS Financial reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $122.00 price objective on shares of Hawkins in a research report on Thursday, October 31st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Hawkins by 5.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 19,978 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $2,597,000 after buying an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new stake in Hawkins in the 3rd quarter valued at $795,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Hawkins by 242.5% during the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 459 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Hawkins by 3.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 523,514 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $66,743,000 after purchasing an additional 18,119 shares during the period. Finally, Vestcor Inc bought a new position in Hawkins during the third quarter worth $524,000. Institutional investors own 69.71% of the company's stock.

Hawkins Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:HWKN traded down $0.97 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $122.67. The company had a trading volume of 117,096 shares, compared to its average volume of 126,393. Hawkins has a 1-year low of $54.44 and a 1-year high of $139.55. The stock has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a PE ratio of 31.37, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 2.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The business's 50 day moving average price is $125.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $117.51.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.18 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $247.03 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $259.59 million. Hawkins had a return on equity of 19.64% and a net margin of 8.74%. Research analysts forecast that Hawkins will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hawkins Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. Hawkins's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.41%.

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.