Martingale Asset Management L P Reduces Stock Holdings in Hawkins, Inc. $HWKN

Key Points

• Martingale Asset Management L P reduced its stake in Hawkins, Inc. by 69.4% during the first quarter, now holding 3,804 shares valued at $403,000.
• Hawkins reported an EPS of $1.40, exceeding analysts' expectations, and experienced a revenue of $293.27 million for the quarter.
• The company announced a new quarterly dividend of $0.19, an increase from the previous quarterly dividend of $0.18, with a payout ratio of 18.72%.

Martingale Asset Management L P decreased its holdings in Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN - Free Report) by 69.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,804 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after selling 8,608 shares during the quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P's holdings in Hawkins were worth $403,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its stake in Hawkins by 31.5% in the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 599,015 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $63,448,000 after acquiring an additional 143,425 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its holdings in Hawkins by 37.6% in the first quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 350,722 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $37,148,000 after purchasing an additional 95,885 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Hawkins by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 235,096 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $28,839,000 after purchasing an additional 32,670 shares in the last quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Hawkins by 3.2% in the first quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 220,327 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $23,337,000 after purchasing an additional 6,832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP raised its holdings in Hawkins by 8.3% in the first quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 114,812 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $12,161,000 after purchasing an additional 8,785 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.71% of the company's stock.

Hawkins Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:HWKN opened at $170.21 on Tuesday. Hawkins, Inc. has a 1-year low of $98.30 and a 1-year high of $185.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 1.45. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $158.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $131.34. The company has a market capitalization of $3.55 billion, a PE ratio of 41.92, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.81.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.40 EPS 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 company had revenue of $293.27 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $278.76 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that Hawkins, Inc. will post 4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hawkins Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a $0.19 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. This is a positive change from Hawkins's previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Hawkins's payout ratio is 18.72%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have 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 report on Friday, August 1st. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on Hawkins in a report on Thursday, July 24th. They issued a "market perform" rating for the company. Zacks Research upgraded Hawkins to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Hawkins from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, July 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $162.50.

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.

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