Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $185.50 and last traded at $184.19, with a volume of 18364 shares. The stock had previously closed at $181.93.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. BWS Financial increased their price objective on Hawkins from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Wall Street Zen downgraded Hawkins from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Hawkins in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on Hawkins in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Hawkins from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $162.50.

Hawkins Stock Performance

The firm has a 50 day moving average of $171.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $144.56. The stock has a market cap of $3.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 2.31.

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

Hawkins Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This is a positive change from Hawkins’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. Hawkins’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.72%.

Institutional Trading of Hawkins

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HWKN. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Hawkins by 5,050.0% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 15,862 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,719,000 after purchasing an additional 15,554 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Hawkins by 20.4% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 531 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $56,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hawkins in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,287,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Hawkins by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 9,327 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $988,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of Hawkins by 37.6% in the 1st quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 350,722 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $37,148,000 after acquiring an additional 95,885 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.71% of the company’s stock.

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.