Short Interest in Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI) Grows By 6.5%

Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,140,000 shares, a growth of 6.5% from the September 30th total of 2,010,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 500,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.3 days. Currently, 3.1% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hillenbrand

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Hillenbrand during the 1st quarter worth about $755,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Hillenbrand by 3.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,702,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $437,645,000 after purchasing an additional 290,275 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Hillenbrand during the first quarter worth about $3,285,000. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in Hillenbrand by 4.3% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 392,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,696,000 after buying an additional 16,323 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC bought a new position in Hillenbrand in the 1st quarter valued at about $281,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.09% of the company’s stock.

Hillenbrand Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of Hillenbrand stock traded up $0.43 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $27.98. 9,790 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 385,735. The stock has a market cap of $1.96 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.37 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a 50 day moving average of $28.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44. Hillenbrand has a fifty-two week low of $25.11 and a fifty-two week high of $50.58.

Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.03. Hillenbrand had a positive return on equity of 14.89% and a negative net margin of 6.67%. The firm had revenue of $786.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $818.16 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.95 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Hillenbrand will post 3.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hillenbrand Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a $0.2225 dividend. This represents a $0.89 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This is an increase from Hillenbrand’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Hillenbrand’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -30.27%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Hillenbrand in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $50.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hillenbrand from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered shares of Hillenbrand from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $54.00 to $33.00 in a report on Monday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.00.

Hillenbrand Company Profile

Hillenbrand, Inc operates as an industrial company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Advanced Process Solutions and Molding Technology Solutions. The Advanced Process Solutions segment designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, and services process and material handling equipment and systems comprising compounding, extrusion, and material handling equipment, equipment system design services, as well as offers mixing technology, ingredient automation, and portion process; and provides screening and separating equipment for various industries, including plastics, food and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, fertilizers, minerals, energy, wastewater treatment, forest products, and other general industrials.