Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 466,700 shares, a growth of 13.2% from the March 31st total of 412,300 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 153,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days. Currently, 2.4% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hawkins

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. AJOVista LLC bought a new stake in Hawkins during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Centerpoint Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Hawkins in the third quarter worth about $29,000. USA Financial Formulas bought a new position in shares of Hawkins in the fourth quarter worth about $77,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Hawkins in the fourth quarter worth about $108,000. Finally, AXS Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Hawkins in the fourth quarter worth about $179,000. Institutional investors own 69.71% of the company's stock.

Hawkins Price Performance

HWKN traded down $0.68 on Wednesday, hitting $75.09. 89,379 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 139,056. Hawkins has a 12 month low of $39.20 and a 12 month high of $79.30. The business has a 50-day moving average of $74.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $67.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.92 and a beta of 0.75.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.10. Hawkins had a net margin of 7.91% and a return on equity of 19.54%. The business had revenue of $208.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $221.24 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Hawkins will post 3.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Hawkins from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th.

Hawkins Company 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.