Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 9,500 Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 9,500 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $669,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 13,827 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $814,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 43,988 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,589,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Centerpoint Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Hawkins during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 12.2% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 4,895 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $345,000 after acquiring an additional 534 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Hawkins by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 54,596 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,213,000 after acquiring an additional 624 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Hawkins Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:HWKN opened at $75.78 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $73.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.39. The company has a current ratio of 2.45, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a market capitalization of $1.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.78 and a beta of 0.75. Hawkins, Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.20 and a 12-month high of $79.30.

Hawkins (NASDAQ:HWKN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $208.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $221.24 million. Hawkins had a return on equity of 19.54% and a net margin of 7.91%. Sell-side analysts expect that Hawkins, Inc. will post 3.61 EPS for the current year.

Hawkins Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 16th were given a $0.16 dividend. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. Hawkins’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.39%.

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.