Principal Financial Group Inc. Lowers Position in Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 95,984 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 3,918 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Hawkins were worth $12,235,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 289.2% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 467 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hawkins in the third quarter valued at about $4,016,000. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 3.1% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 50,132 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $6,390,000 after acquiring an additional 1,497 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 20.1% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 2,618 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $327,000 after acquiring an additional 439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hawkins in the third quarter valued at about $232,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.71% of the company’s stock.

Hawkins Stock Down 0.5 %

HWKN stock opened at $123.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.61, a P/E/G ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.77. Hawkins, Inc. has a 52 week low of $54.44 and a 52 week high of $135.61. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $122.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $107.06. The company has a current ratio of 2.27, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.16 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $247.03 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $259.59 million. Hawkins had a return on equity of 19.64% and a net margin of 8.74%. On average, research analysts expect that Hawkins, Inc. will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hawkins Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. Hawkins’s payout ratio is currently 18.41%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, BWS Financial reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $122.00 price objective on shares of Hawkins in a report on Thursday, October 31st.

About Hawkins

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.