Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the eleven ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $370.3750.

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Huntington Ingalls Industries from $384.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Huntington Ingalls Industries from $320.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Bank of America upgraded Huntington Ingalls Industries from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $300.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 31st.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Huntington Ingalls Industries news, VP Chad N. Boudreaux sold 787 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.17, for a total transaction of $247,251.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 20,441 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,421,948.97. This represents a 3.71% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HII. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries by 38,526.6% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,986,567 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $675,572,000 after purchasing an additional 1,981,424 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 32.1% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,646,733 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $560,004,000 after purchasing an additional 400,428 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,116,501 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $379,098,000 after purchasing an additional 56,618 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 85.0% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,085,619 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $369,186,000 after buying an additional 498,690 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 978,365 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $332,717,000 after buying an additional 11,743 shares in the last quarter. 90.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of NYSE:HII opened at $437.63 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $389.25 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $324.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.13. The company has a market capitalization of $17.17 billion, a PE ratio of 28.47, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.34. Huntington Ingalls Industries has a 52 week low of $167.70 and a 52 week high of $447.74.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The aerospace company reported $4.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.72 by $0.32. Huntington Ingalls Industries had a net margin of 4.85% and a return on equity of 12.28%. The company had revenue of $3.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.15 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Huntington Ingalls Industries will post 13.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 13th. Investors of record on Friday, February 27th will be given a $1.38 dividend. This represents a $5.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 27th. Huntington Ingalls Industries’s payout ratio is currently 35.91%.

About Huntington Ingalls Industries

Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII) is America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a leading provider of professional services to the U.S. government. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII designs, constructs and maintains nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, submarines and other complex vessels for the U.S. Navy. The company’s products include nuclear aircraft carriers, Virginia-class and Columbia-class submarines, as well as amphibious assault ships, destroyers and cutters.

Established in 2011 as a spin-off from Northrop Grumman’s shipbuilding operations, HII traces its heritage to two historic builders: Newport News Shipbuilding, founded in the 19th century, and Ingalls Shipbuilding, founded in 1938.