Hexcel Co. (NYSE:HXL) Short Interest Update

Hexcel Co. (NYSE:HXL) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,760,000 shares, a drop of 7.4% from the March 15th total of 1,900,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 760,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days. Currently, 2.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Hexcel news, insider Gina Fitzsimons sold 864 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.10, for a total transaction of $62,294.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 3,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $243,337.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Gina Fitzsimons sold 864 shares of Hexcel stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.10, for a total transaction of $62,294.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 3,375 shares in the company, valued at $243,337.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Thierry Merlot sold 4,500 shares of Hexcel stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.63, for a total transaction of $322,335.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 50,371 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,608,074.73. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.85% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hexcel

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HXL. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Hexcel by 838.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,810,199 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $400,780,000 after acquiring an additional 6,084,592 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Hexcel in the fourth quarter worth about $56,738,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Hexcel by 143.6% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,466,380 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $108,146,000 after acquiring an additional 864,405 shares during the period. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Hexcel by 93.0% in the fourth quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 1,503,055 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $110,850,000 after acquiring an additional 724,280 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Hexcel by 6.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 8,420,295 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $500,755,000 after acquiring an additional 475,375 shares during the period. 95.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Hexcel Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of HXL traded up $0.30 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $61.80. 1,560,529 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 989,369. The firm has a market cap of $5.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.84, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.23. Hexcel has a 12-month low of $58.81 and a 12-month high of $79.08. The company has a current ratio of 2.74, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $71.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $69.65.

Hexcel (NYSE:HXL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The aerospace company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $457.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $474.01 million. Hexcel had a net margin of 5.91% and a return on equity of 9.31%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.40 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Hexcel will post 2.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Hexcel Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a positive change from Hexcel’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. Hexcel’s payout ratio is currently 48.39%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HXL has been the topic of several research reports. Northcoast Research cut shares of Hexcel from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Hexcel from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $65.00 price target (down previously from $75.00) on shares of Hexcel in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group cut shares of Hexcel from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $87.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of Hexcel from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.14.

About Hexcel

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.