Catherine A. Suever Purchases 400 Shares of Hexcel Co. (NYSE:HXL) Stock

Hexcel Co. (NYSE:HXL) Director Catherine A. Suever bought 400 shares of Hexcel stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $68.33 per share, for a total transaction of $27,332.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 15,748 shares in the company, valued at $1,076,060.84. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Hexcel Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of HXL opened at $71.18 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.84, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 2.74 and a quick ratio of 1.51. Hexcel Co. has a 1-year low of $58.81 and a 1-year high of $79.08. The company has a 50-day moving average of $69.58 and a 200 day moving average of $69.50.

Hexcel (NYSE:HXL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The aerospace company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.44. Hexcel had a net margin of 5.52% and a return on equity of 8.97%. The firm had revenue of $472.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $468.93 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Hexcel Co. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Hexcel Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 2nd. Hexcel’s payout ratio is 51.28%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on HXL. Morgan Stanley cut Hexcel from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded Hexcel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 price target on shares of Hexcel in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Hexcel from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Hexcel from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $76.57.

Institutional Trading of Hexcel

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Hexcel during the 1st quarter valued at about $119,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of Hexcel by 6.7% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,318,541 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $96,056,000 after purchasing an additional 82,473 shares in the last quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new position in Hexcel during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,149,000. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in Hexcel by 263.8% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 8,138 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $593,000 after buying an additional 5,901 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in Hexcel during the first quarter worth $393,000. 95.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Hexcel Company Profile

Hexcel Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets carbon fibers, structural reinforcements, honeycomb structures, resins, and composite materials and parts for use in commercial aerospace, space and defense, and industrial applications. It operates through two segments, Composite Materials and Engineered Products.