Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) Shares Sold by Fiera Capital Corp

Fiera Capital Corp reduced its stake in Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN - Free Report) by 21.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,000 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after selling 2,500 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp's holdings in Hawkins were worth $953,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of HWKN. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in Hawkins by 118.1% during the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 5,603 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $687,000 after acquiring an additional 3,034 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Hawkins during the 4th quarter worth $503,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Hawkins by 61.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 149,616 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $18,353,000 after purchasing an additional 57,179 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Hawkins by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 20,284 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $2,488,000 after buying an additional 592 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG purchased a new position in Hawkins in the fourth quarter valued at $950,000. 69.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Hawkins Stock Performance

Shares of Hawkins stock traded down $4.45 on Friday, hitting $158.83. The stock had a trading volume of 227,487 shares, compared to its average volume of 149,432. The stock has a market cap of $3.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Hawkins, Inc. has a 52-week low of $98.30 and a 52-week high of $171.67. The company's 50 day moving average price is $145.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $124.25.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $293.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $278.76 million. Hawkins had a return on equity of 18.66% and a net margin of 8.37%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Hawkins, Inc. will post 4 EPS for the current year.

Hawkins Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.19 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. This is an increase from Hawkins's previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. Hawkins's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.73%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HWKN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on Hawkins in a report on Thursday, July 24th. They issued a "market perform" rating on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Hawkins from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, July 5th. Finally, BWS Financial upped their target price on shares of Hawkins from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday.

Hawkins 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.