Empirical Asset Management LLC Makes New Investment in Hexcel Corporation $HXL

Empirical Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 28,497 shares of the aerospace company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,787,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its position in Hexcel by 469.3% during the third quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 575 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 474 shares during the period. MainStreet Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Hexcel by 12.8% during the 3rd quarter. MainStreet Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,830 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $428,000 after acquiring an additional 775 shares during the last quarter. Aries Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Hexcel during the 3rd quarter valued at $219,000. Channing Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Hexcel by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 1,334,649 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $83,682,000 after purchasing an additional 69,201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Compass Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Hexcel by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter. Compass Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,521 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $597,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on HXL. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Hexcel from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Hexcel from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $67.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Truist Financial set a $94.00 price objective on Hexcel in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Hexcel from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Hexcel from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hexcel presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $82.17.

Hexcel Price Performance

NYSE:HXL opened at $92.58 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.09, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 2.26 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $81.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.27. Hexcel Corporation has a 1 year low of $45.28 and a 1 year high of $93.14.

Hexcel (NYSE:HXL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The aerospace company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $491.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $484.46 million. Hexcel had a return on equity of 9.54% and a net margin of 5.78%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.52 EPS. Hexcel has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.100-2.300 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Hexcel Corporation will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

Hexcel Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 9th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This is an increase from Hexcel’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 9th. Hexcel’s payout ratio is currently 52.17%.

About Hexcel

Hexcel Corporation is a global leader in advanced composite materials for aerospace and industrial applications. The company specializes in the development and manufacture of lightweight, high-performance products that enhance fuel efficiency, durability and structural strength. Its offerings are critical to the aerospace sector, where demand for lighter, more efficient aircraft drives continuous innovation in materials.

Hexcel’s product portfolio encompasses carbon fiber reinforcements, pre-impregnated composites (prepregs), honeycomb core, engineered adhesives and structural film adhesives.