HNI (NYSE:HNI) Share Price Passes Above 200-Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

HNI Corporation (NYSE:HNI)’s share price crossed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Friday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $39.53 and traded as high as $39.96. HNI shares last traded at $39.61, with a volume of 2,684,417 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Benchmark cut their price objective on shares of HNI from $75.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of HNI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of HNI from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, HNI presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.00.

HNI Stock Up 1.3%

The firm has a market cap of $2.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 96.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $33.60 and its 200 day moving average is $39.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

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

HNI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 29th were paid a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. This is a boost from HNI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. HNI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 341.46%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Triumph Capital Management bought a new stake in HNI in the third quarter worth about $28,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in HNI by 59.9% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,223 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 458 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in shares of HNI by 20.5% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 8,642 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $383,000 after purchasing an additional 1,472 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of HNI by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 13,527 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $600,000 after purchasing an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of HNI during the 3rd quarter valued at about $676,000. Institutional investors own 75.26% of the company’s stock.

About HNI

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.