HNI (NYSE:HNI) Trading 5.4% Higher – Should You Buy?

Shares of HNI Corporation (NYSE:HNI) shot up 5.4% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $42.49 and last traded at $42.6240. 27,342 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 96% from the average session volume of 710,805 shares. The stock had previously closed at $40.45.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HNI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings lowered HNI from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Wells Fargo & Company set a $65.00 price target on shares of HNI in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of HNI in a report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.00.

HNI Trading Down 1.0%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market cap of $2.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 0.90. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $34.79 and its 200-day moving average is $39.37.

HNI (NYSE:HNI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The business services provider reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.03. HNI had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 0.04%.The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.44 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 124.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that HNI Corporation will post 4 earnings per share for the current year.

HNI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 29th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This is a positive change from HNI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. HNI’s payout ratio is 341.46%.

Institutional Trading of HNI

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Millennium Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HNI in the first quarter worth $10,666,000. Jane Street Group LLC bought a new position in HNI during the 1st quarter valued at about $10,301,000. Cooke & Bieler LP raised its position in HNI by 23.0% in the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 754,493 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $31,719,000 after purchasing an additional 140,971 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of HNI by 167.4% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 42,621 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,792,000 after buying an additional 26,683 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in HNI during the 3rd quarter valued at $676,000. 75.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

HNI Company Profile

HNI Corporation, founded in 1944 as the Heating & Novelty Company and headquartered in Muscatine, Iowa, is a leading manufacturer of office furniture and hearth products. Over its history, the company has evolved from producing gas heaters into two primary business segments: Office Furniture and Hearth & Home. HNI’s Office Furniture division operates under well-known brands such as The HON Company, Allsteel, Gunlocke and Kimball, offering a comprehensive portfolio of workstations, seating, tables, storage solutions and acoustic products tailored for corporate, education, healthcare and government markets.

In its Hearth & Home segment, HNI designs, manufactures and distributes fireplaces, stoves, fireplace inserts, logs and related accessories.