HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) Short Interest Up 7.6% in September

HNI Co. (NYSE:HNI) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 728,200 shares, a growth of 7.6% from the August 31st total of 676,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 261,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days.

Insider Activity

In other HNI news, VP Steven M. Bradford sold 11,237 shares of HNI stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.35, for a total transaction of $543,308.95. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 61,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,980,390.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, VP Steven M. Bradford sold 11,237 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.35, for a total value of $543,308.95. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 61,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,980,390.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey D. Lorenger sold 72,102 shares of HNI stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.32, for a total value of $3,556,070.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 296,892 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,642,713.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 134,029 shares of company stock valued at $6,766,593. Corporate insiders own 3.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HNI

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in HNI during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of HNI in the fourth quarter worth $42,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of HNI during the first quarter worth $202,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in HNI in the 1st quarter valued at $245,000. Finally, Bailard Inc. purchased a new stake in HNI in the 2nd quarter worth $248,000. 75.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on HNI shares. Benchmark boosted their target price on HNI from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of HNI from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th.

HNI Price Performance

NYSE HNI opened at $53.40 on Wednesday. HNI has a 52 week low of $32.70 and a 52 week high of $56.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.56, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $52.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.24.

HNI (NYSE:HNI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The business services provider reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $623.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $637.74 million. HNI had a return on equity of 19.15% and a net margin of 4.39%. HNI’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.55 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that HNI will post 3.17 earnings per share for the current year.

HNI Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 23rd were given a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 23rd. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.47%. HNI’s payout ratio is currently 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.