Short Interest in HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) Expands By 6.0%

HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) saw a significant growth in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 709,000 shares, a growth of 6.0% from the May 31st total of 668,900 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 208,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.4 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at HNI

In other news, CFO Marshall H. Bridges sold 8,551 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.50, for a total transaction of $389,070.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,488,667. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other HNI news, VP Donna D. Meade sold 10,000 shares of HNI stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.97, for a total transaction of $459,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 32,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,485,198.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Marshall H. Bridges sold 8,551 shares of HNI stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.50, for a total value of $389,070.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,488,667. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 20,349 shares of company stock valued at $931,479. Corporate insiders own 3.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cetera Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of HNI by 18.0% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 7,779 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $351,000 after purchasing an additional 1,187 shares during the period. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its holdings in HNI by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 45,556 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,054,000 after buying an additional 911 shares during the period. Arjuna Capital lifted its stake in HNI by 5.6% in the first quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 34,317 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,549,000 after buying an additional 1,811 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of HNI by 11.9% during the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 5,702 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $257,000 after acquiring an additional 608 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of HNI during the first quarter worth $3,987,000. 75.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on HNI. Benchmark boosted their price objective on shares of HNI from $54.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. StockNews.com cut shares of HNI from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th.

HNI Stock Performance

HNI stock opened at $44.79 on Thursday. HNI has a 52-week low of $27.24 and a 52-week high of $47.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $44.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $43.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.86.

HNI (NYSE:HNI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $588.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $574.56 million. HNI had a net margin of 2.57% and a return on equity of 17.75%. The company’s revenue was up 22.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.13 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that HNI will post 3.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HNI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 24th were paid a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 23rd. This is a boost from HNI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.95%. HNI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 97.78%.

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.