HNI (NYSE:HNI) Cut to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of HNI (NYSE:HNI) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Sunday.

Separately, Benchmark increased their price target on shares of HNI from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th.

HNI Stock Performance

HNI opened at $54.01 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.83. HNI has a 52-week low of $32.70 and a 52-week high of $56.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.55 billion, a PE ratio of 40.01, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.84.

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

HNI Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 23rd were given a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 23rd. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.44%. HNI’s payout ratio is 97.78%.

Insider Transactions at HNI

In other HNI news, CEO Jeffrey D. Lorenger sold 72,102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.32, for a total value of $3,556,070.64. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 296,892 shares in the company, valued at $14,642,713.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Marshall H. Bridges sold 4,138 shares of HNI stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.50, for a total transaction of $221,383.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 78,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,191,511. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey D. Lorenger sold 72,102 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.32, for a total value of $3,556,070.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 296,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,642,713.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 118,412 shares of company stock worth $6,012,952. 3.36% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of HNI

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HNI. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of HNI in the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in HNI by 51.6% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 670 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of HNI during the 1st quarter valued at $202,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of HNI during the 3rd quarter worth $230,000. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of HNI in the first quarter worth $245,000. Institutional investors own 75.26% of the company’s stock.

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.