Short Interest in HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) Rises By 14.6%

HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 893,400 shares, a growth of 14.6% from the June 30th total of 779,400 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 231,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.9 days.

Insider Activity at HNI

In other HNI news, CFO Marshall H. Bridges sold 8,551 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.50, for a total value of $389,070.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,488,667. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, VP Donna D. Meade sold 10,000 shares of HNI stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.97, for a total value of $459,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 32,308 shares in the company, valued at $1,485,198.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Marshall H. Bridges sold 8,551 shares of HNI stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.50, for a total value of $389,070.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 76,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,488,667. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 46,080 shares of company stock worth $2,224,126. 3.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HNI

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in HNI by 5.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,566,311 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $251,208,000 after buying an additional 287,735 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of HNI by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,578,570 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $66,032,000 after purchasing an additional 29,139 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of HNI by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,237,003 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $51,744,000 after purchasing an additional 206,419 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of HNI by 3.1% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 565,012 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,437,000 after purchasing an additional 17,151 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of HNI in the fourth quarter valued at about $13,368,000. 75.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. StockNews.com upgraded HNI from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Benchmark boosted their price objective on HNI from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th.

HNI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HNI opened at $54.93 on Wednesday. HNI has a one year low of $27.92 and a one year high of $55.40. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $46.12 and a 200-day moving average of $44.14. The company has a market capitalization of $2.60 billion, a PE ratio of 40.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.20.

HNI (NYSE:HNI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The business services provider reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $623.70 million during 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that HNI will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HNI Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 12th. Stockholders 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 an increase from HNI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.40%. HNI’s dividend payout ratio is 97.78%.

About HNI

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.