Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) Rating Lowered to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN - Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Saturday morning.

HWKN has been the subject of several other reports. BWS Financial reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $160.00 target price on shares of Hawkins in a report on Thursday, May 15th. CJS Securities assumed coverage on shares of Hawkins in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued a "market outperform" rating and a $125.00 target price for the company.

Hawkins Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ HWKN traded up $1.83 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $152.43. 178,542 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 130,870. Hawkins has a 1 year low of $89.59 and a 1 year high of $153.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 2.15. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $131.69 and a 200 day moving average of $119.31.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 14th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.04. Hawkins had a net margin of 8.66% and a return on equity of 18.93%. The firm had revenue of $245.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $230.69 million. On average, analysts forecast that Hawkins will post 4 earnings per share for the current year.

Hawkins Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 30th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 30th. Hawkins's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.82%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hawkins

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its holdings in Hawkins by 31.5% during the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 599,015 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $63,448,000 after buying an additional 143,425 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Hawkins by 37.6% during the 1st quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 350,722 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $37,148,000 after acquiring an additional 95,885 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Hawkins during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $42,466,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Hawkins by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 235,096 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $28,839,000 after acquiring an additional 32,670 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GW&K Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Hawkins by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 220,327 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $23,337,000 after acquiring an additional 6,832 shares during the last quarter. 69.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.