Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) Downgraded by Vertical Research to “Hold”

Vertical Research cut shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Vertical Research currently has $275.00 price objective on the aerospace company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research cut shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from an outperform rating to a peer perform rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and lifted their price target for the company from $280.00 to $285.00 in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Huntington Ingalls Industries has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $290.00.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Price Performance

HII opened at $252.85 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $265.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $262.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.82. Huntington Ingalls Industries has a 1 year low of $212.58 and a 1 year high of $299.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.92 billion, a PE ratio of 13.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.52.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The aerospace company reported $4.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.61 by $0.77. Huntington Ingalls Industries had a net margin of 6.35% and a return on equity of 18.55%. The business had revenue of $2.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.84 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Huntington Ingalls Industries will post 16.56 EPS for the current year.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th were paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.06%. Huntington Ingalls Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.59%.

Institutional Trading of Huntington Ingalls Industries

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HII. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries by 16.1% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 914,410 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $225,247,000 after acquiring an additional 126,654 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 41.6% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 732,587 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $180,458,000 after purchasing an additional 215,362 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 1.9% in the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 638,680 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $157,326,000 after purchasing an additional 11,693 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 8.5% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 521,426 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $128,443,000 after purchasing an additional 40,942 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 2.7% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 502,442 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $123,771,000 after purchasing an additional 13,439 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.46% of the company’s stock.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Company Profile

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc designs, builds, overhauls, and repairs military ships in the United States. It operates through three segments: Ingalls, Newport News, and Mission Technologies. The company is involved in the design and construction of non-nuclear ships comprising amphibious assault ships; expeditionary warfare ships; surface combatants; and national security cutters for the U.S.