Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) Raised to "Buy" at Wall Street Zen

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on HWKN. BWS Financial reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Hawkins in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. CJS Securities began coverage on shares of Hawkins in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set a "market outperform" rating and a $125.00 price objective on the stock.

Hawkins Price Performance

NASDAQ:HWKN traded up $0.21 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $140.10. The stock had a trading volume of 205,845 shares, compared to its average volume of 127,254. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $127.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $118.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Hawkins has a one year low of $87.24 and a one year high of $141.26.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HWKN. Wasatch Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Hawkins during the 4th quarter valued at $42,466,000. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its position in Hawkins by 31.5% during the first 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 during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Hawkins during the fourth quarter valued at about $13,087,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 95,885 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 157,110.0% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 94,326 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $9,991,000 after buying an additional 94,266 shares during the period. 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.