HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) Short Interest Up 7.6% in September

HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 728,200 shares, an increase of 7.6% from the August 31st total of 676,700 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 261,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days.

HNI Trading Down 1.4 %

HNI stock traded down $0.74 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $53.10. The company had a trading volume of 44,815 shares, compared to its average volume of 249,037. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.73. HNI has a 52 week low of $32.70 and a 52 week high of $56.13. The business has a 50 day moving average of $52.03 and a 200 day moving average of $47.24. The company has a market cap of $2.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.24, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.85.

HNI (NYSE:HNI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The business services provider reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $623.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $637.74 million. HNI had a return on equity of 19.15% and a net margin of 4.39%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that HNI will post 3.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HNI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Friday, August 23rd were paid a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 23rd. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.49%. HNI’s payout ratio is 97.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at HNI

In related news, VP Steven M. Bradford sold 2,380 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.03, for a total value of $114,311.40. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 61,642 shares in the company, valued at $2,960,665.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other HNI news, Director Larry B. Porcellato sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.01, for a total transaction of $96,020.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 39,725 shares in the company, valued at $1,907,197.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Steven M. Bradford sold 2,380 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.03, for a total transaction of $114,311.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 61,642 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,960,665.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 134,029 shares of company stock valued at $6,766,593 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HNI

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HNI. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of HNI by 184.7% during the first quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 102,330 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,618,000 after buying an additional 66,387 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its holdings in shares of HNI by 1.4% during the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 40,765 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 544 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of HNI by 30.4% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 47,936 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,163,000 after purchasing an additional 11,168 shares in the last quarter. Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC boosted its position in shares of HNI by 58.0% during the fourth quarter. Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC now owns 51,867 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,170,000 after buying an additional 19,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in HNI by 86.6% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 35,859 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,618,000 after buying an additional 16,646 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of HNI from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Benchmark increased their price objective on HNI from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th.

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.