HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) Short Interest Update

HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 595,100 shares, a decrease of 5.1% from the March 15th total of 627,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 270,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Mary A. Bell sold 2,898 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.13, for a total transaction of $124,990.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 76,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,285,772.79. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other HNI news, Director Miguel M. Calado sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.99, for a total value of $107,475.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 36,988 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,590,114.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Mary A. Bell sold 2,898 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.13, for a total value of $124,990.74. Following the transaction, the director now owns 76,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,285,772.79. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 17,374 shares of company stock worth $749,534. Company insiders own 3.36% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HNI

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in HNI by 12.7% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,420,167 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $209,100,000 after buying an additional 836,862 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of HNI by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,276,579 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $182,728,000 after acquiring an additional 36,988 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in HNI by 8.1% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,297,872 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $64,754,000 after purchasing an additional 173,124 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in HNI by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,578,570 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $66,032,000 after purchasing an additional 29,139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in HNI by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,310,874 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $37,268,000 after purchasing an additional 101,891 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com lowered HNI from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th.

HNI Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of HNI stock opened at $41.53 on Tuesday. HNI has a fifty-two week low of $24.81 and a fifty-two week high of $45.47. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $43.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.16.

HNI (NYSE:HNI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $679.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $686.15 million. HNI had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 16.97%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.63 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that HNI will post 2.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HNI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 26th were given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 23rd. HNI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 125.49%.

HNI Company Profile

HNI Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture, sale, and marketing of workplace furnishings and residential building products primarily in the United States and Canada. The company operates through two segments, Workplace Furnishings and Residential Building Products. The Workplace Furnishings segment offers a range of commercial and home office furniture, including panel-based and freestanding furniture systems, seating, storage, benching, tables, architectural products, and ancillary and hospitality products, as well as social collaborative items under the HON, Allsteel, Beyond, Gunlocke, HBF, HBF Textiles, HNI India, Kimball, National, Etc., Interwoven, David Edward, Kimball Hospitality, and D'style brands.