Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Sells 319 Shares of Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN)

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC lessened its position in Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 31,183 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 319 shares during the period. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in Hawkins were worth $3,825,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Hawkins by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 13,527 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,659,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Hawkins by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 12,056 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,479,000 after buying an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hawkins by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC now owns 7,747 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $950,000 after buying an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Hawkins by 155.4% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 355 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of Hawkins by 37.0% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 948 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $116,000 after buying an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, BWS Financial reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $122.00 target price on shares of Hawkins in a research note on Friday, January 31st.

Hawkins Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of Hawkins stock opened at $111.60 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $2.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s 50 day moving average is $117.78 and its 200 day moving average is $121.57. Hawkins, Inc. has a twelve month low of $67.52 and a twelve month high of $139.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.05). Hawkins had a net margin of 8.60% and a return on equity of 18.95%. Research analysts anticipate that Hawkins, Inc. will post 4.14 EPS for the current year.

Hawkins Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. Hawkins’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.37%.

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.