Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) Reaches New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII) reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $441.92 and last traded at $433.4580, with a volume of 131322 shares. The stock had previously closed at $424.89.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on HII shares. Melius Research raised Huntington Ingalls Industries from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Bank of America raised shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $300.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Huntington Ingalls Industries from $384.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and set a $421.00 target price on shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $370.38.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The company has a market capitalization of $16.98 billion, a PE ratio of 28.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.34. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $384.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $322.22.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The aerospace company reported $4.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.72 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $3.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.09 billion. Huntington Ingalls Industries had a return on equity of 12.28% and a net margin of 4.85%.Huntington Ingalls Industries’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.15 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. will post 13.99 EPS for the current year.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 27th will be given a $1.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 27th. This represents a $5.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Huntington Ingalls Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Chad N. Boudreaux sold 787 shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.17, for a total value of $247,251.79. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 20,441 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,421,948.97. The trade was a 3.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Huntington Ingalls Industries

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 40.1% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 206 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries by 29.5% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,203 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $291,000 after acquiring an additional 274 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,211 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $1,741,000 after acquiring an additional 311 shares during the last quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new position in shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries during the 2nd quarter worth $1,690,000. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries during the 2nd quarter valued at about $217,000. 90.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Company Profile

Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII) is America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a leading provider of professional services to the U.S. government. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII designs, constructs and maintains nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, submarines and other complex vessels for the U.S. Navy. The company’s products include nuclear aircraft carriers, Virginia-class and Columbia-class submarines, as well as amphibious assault ships, destroyers and cutters.

Established in 2011 as a spin-off from Northrop Grumman’s shipbuilding operations, HII traces its heritage to two historic builders: Newport News Shipbuilding, founded in the 19th century, and Ingalls Shipbuilding, founded in 1938.