HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 595,100 shares, a drop 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HNI news, Director Larry B. Porcellato sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.00, for a total value of $88,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 40,718 shares in the company, valued at $1,791,592. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Larry B. Porcellato sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.00, for a total value of $88,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 40,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,791,592. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 sale, the director now directly 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 ninety days, insiders have 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

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new position in shares of HNI in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in shares of HNI by 1,015.2% in the 1st quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,104 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 1,005 shares in the last quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of HNI in the 4th quarter worth $42,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new position in shares of HNI in the 3rd quarter worth $56,000. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new position in shares of HNI in the 3rd quarter worth $71,000. 75.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

HNI Stock Performance

HNI opened at $41.09 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.28, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a fifty day moving average of $43.35 and a 200 day moving average of $40.54. HNI has a fifty-two week low of $24.81 and a fifty-two week high of $45.47. 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 earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $679.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $686.15 million. HNI had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 16.97%. HNI’s quarterly revenue was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that HNI will post 2.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HNI Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 6th. Investors of record on Monday, February 26th were paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 23rd. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.12%. HNI’s payout ratio is 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.