Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Purchases New Position in Hawkins, Inc. $HWKN

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,756 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $250,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HWKN. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $63,448,000 after acquiring an additional 143,425 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. acquired a new position in Hawkins in the second quarter valued at approximately $16,956,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Hawkins by 157,110.0% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 94,326 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $9,991,000 after acquiring an additional 94,266 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Hawkins in the first quarter valued at approximately $5,271,000. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC lifted its holdings in Hawkins by 83.2% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 38,416 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $4,069,000 after acquiring an additional 17,447 shares during the last quarter. 69.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Hawkins Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ HWKN opened at $163.19 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.19, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Hawkins, Inc. has a 52-week low of $98.30 and a 52-week high of $186.15. The business’s 50 day moving average is $172.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $149.80.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $278.76 million. Research analysts predict that Hawkins, Inc. will post 4 EPS for the current year.

Hawkins Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.19 per share. This is an increase from Hawkins’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. Hawkins’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.72%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on HWKN shares. BWS Financial upped their price objective on Hawkins from $160.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Hawkins in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Zacks Research lowered Hawkins from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered Hawkins from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 5th. Finally, Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on Hawkins in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $162.50.

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.