Short Interest in Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) Increases By 13.2%

Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 466,700 shares, a growth of 13.2% from the March 31st total of 412,300 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 153,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days. Approximately 2.4% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hawkins

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB purchased a new position in Hawkins during the 4th quarter worth $3,402,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 200.3% in the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 21,929 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,290,000 after acquiring an additional 14,626 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 9.9% in the fourth quarter. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC now owns 22,366 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,575,000 after acquiring an additional 2,023 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in shares of Hawkins in the third quarter valued at about $557,000. Finally, Values First Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 11,863 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $835,000 after acquiring an additional 847 shares in the last quarter. 69.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Hawkins Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:HWKN traded down $0.75 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $75.02. 17,770 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 138,164. The firm has a market cap of $1.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.92 and a beta of 0.75. Hawkins has a 1 year low of $39.20 and a 1 year high of $79.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $74.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $67.65.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.10. Hawkins had a net margin of 7.91% and a return on equity of 19.54%. The business had revenue of $208.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $221.24 million. Equities research analysts forecast that Hawkins will post 3.61 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.