Cerity Partners LLC Acquires New Position in Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN)

Cerity Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 100,727 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,093,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in HWKN. Nordea Investment Management AB purchased a new stake in Hawkins in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,402,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 200.3% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 21,929 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,290,000 after acquiring an additional 14,626 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in shares of Hawkins during the 3rd quarter worth $557,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund purchased a new position in Hawkins in the third quarter worth $638,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Hawkins by 2.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 233,193 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $13,723,000 after acquiring an additional 5,396 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com cut Hawkins from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th.

Hawkins Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ HWKN opened at $77.09 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.15 and a beta of 0.75. Hawkins, Inc. has a one year low of $39.20 and a one year high of $79.30. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.81 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $66.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.58.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $208.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $221.24 million. Hawkins had a net margin of 7.91% and a return on equity of 19.54%. As a group, analysts expect that Hawkins, Inc. will post 3.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hawkins Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 16th were issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. Hawkins’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.39%.

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.