Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) Trading 4.9% Higher – Should You Buy?

Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN)’s share price traded up 4.9% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $122.02 and last traded at $121.25. 73,623 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 26% from the average session volume of 99,152 shares. The stock had previously closed at $115.54.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, BWS Financial reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $122.00 price objective on shares of Hawkins in a research note on Thursday, October 31st.

Hawkins Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.27, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a market cap of $2.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.09, a PEG ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $125.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $118.59.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.18 by ($0.02). Hawkins had a net margin of 8.74% and a return on equity of 19.64%. The company had revenue of $247.03 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $259.59 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Hawkins, Inc. will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hawkins Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. Hawkins’s payout ratio is currently 18.41%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Hawkins by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 95,931 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $11,892,000 after buying an additional 3,814 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in Hawkins by 5.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 19,978 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,597,000 after buying an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC purchased a new position in Hawkins in the third quarter worth approximately $795,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Hawkins by 242.5% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 459 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 18,119 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.71% of the company’s stock.

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.