Legal & General Group Plc Grows Stake in Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. $HII

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII) by 22.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 66,772 shares of the aerospace company’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,408 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Huntington Ingalls Industries were worth $18,689,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Huntington Ingalls Industries in the second quarter valued at approximately $944,877,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in Huntington Ingalls Industries by 38,526.6% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,986,567 shares of the aerospace company’s stock worth $675,572,000 after buying an additional 1,981,424 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries by 32.1% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,646,733 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $560,004,000 after buying an additional 400,428 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,116,501 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $379,098,000 after buying an additional 56,618 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries by 85.0% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,085,619 shares of the aerospace company’s stock valued at $369,186,000 after buying an additional 498,690 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HII has been the subject of several recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $341.00 price objective on Huntington Ingalls Industries in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from $325.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $364.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.88.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Stock Performance

NYSE:HII opened at $294.09 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.23. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. has a 52-week low of $263.62 and a 52-week high of $460.00. The firm has a market cap of $11.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.53, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.24. The business’s fifty day moving average is $296.49 and its 200 day moving average is $344.43.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The aerospace company reported $5.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $1.48. The business had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.15 billion. Huntington Ingalls Industries had a return on equity of 12.89% and a net margin of 5.01%.The firm’s revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.86 EPS. Research analysts predict that Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. will post 18.47 EPS for the current year.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 11th. Investors of record on Friday, August 28th will be issued a dividend of $1.38 per share. This represents a $5.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 28th. Huntington Ingalls Industries’s dividend payout ratio is 32.90%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Christopher D. Kastner sold 13,070 shares of Huntington Ingalls Industries stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.92, for a total transaction of $4,246,704.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 11,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,646,902.08. This trade represents a 53.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Huntington Ingalls Industries 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.