Hawkins (HWKN) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $3.16B
• Dividend Yield: 0.5%
• Average Volume (3M): 147.69K
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 38.2
• Beta (1Y): 0.79
• Revenue Growth: 11.86%
• EPS Growth: 1.99%
• Country: US
• Employees: 928
• Sector: Basic Materials
• Sector Strength: 58
• Industry: Chemicals - Specialty
• EPS (TTM): 0.69
• Shares Outstanding: 20,902,094
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 104,500
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 147,688
• PEG Ratio: 2.14
• Price to Book (P/B): 4.79
• Price to Sales (P/S): 2.26
• P/FCF Ratio: 31.48
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 1.09
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 3.23
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 14.12
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 19.78
• 1Y Price Target: $200.00
• Price Target Upside: 32.49% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Moderate Buy
• Number of Analyst Covering: 1
• EPS Forecast (FY): 4
• Revenue Forecast (FY): $1.08B

• Rating: 61 Neutral
• Price Target: $155.00 ▲(2.68% Upside)
• Action: Reiterated Date: 01/30/26
• Date: Action: Reiterated 01/30/26

The score is primarily supported by strong underlying financial performance (multi-year growth and improved profitability with generally healthy cash generation). It is held back by weak technical positioning (trading below major moving averages with low RSI) and a less attractive valuation (high P/E with a low dividend yield).

Positive Factors

Multi-year Revenue Growth

Sustained top-line expansion to roughly $1.06B TTM demonstrates scalable distribution and recurring demand across water treatment and industrial end markets. That multi-year growth supports durable customer relationships, purchasing scale, and investment capacity over the next 2–6 months and beyond.

Improving Profitability & ROE

Material margin improvement and solid historical ROE (~15–19%) indicate stronger pricing power, product mix, and operating leverage. Higher margins enhance cash generation and reinvestment potential, making profitability trends more resilient to cyclical swings over a multi-month horizon.

Healthy Operating Cash Generation

Operating cash flow that exceeds net income and a positive, improving free cash flow profile provide durable internal funding for working capital, capex, dividends, or debt reduction. This cash strength supports strategic flexibility and resilience over coming quarters.

Negative Factors

Higher TTM Leverage

A notable rise in TTM leverage reduces financial flexibility and raises sensitivity to rate moves or earnings variability. If driven by working-capital or acquisition timing, leverage normalization is possible, but elevated short-term debt levels can constrain capital allocation and increase interest risk.

Volatile Free Cash Flow Conversion

Meaningful year-to-year variability in free cash flow conversion suggests working-capital swings or timing of investments. This volatility can limit predictable funding for strategic initiatives, dividend consistency, or debt paydown and necessitates closer monitoring of cash-cycle drivers.

Recent Margin Compression & Slower Growth

Modest recent margin compression and a slower annual growth pace point to potential cost pressures, mix shifts, or heightened competitive dynamics. If sustained, these trends could erode the improved profitability trajectory and reduce room for margin-driven cash flow gains.

Hawkins Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

Hawkins, Inc. blends, manufactures, and distributes chemicals and other specialty ingredients in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Industrial, Water Treatment, and Health and Nutrition. The Industrial segment offers industrial chemicals, products, and services to agriculture, chemical processing, electronics, energy, food, pharmaceutical, and plating industries. This segment primarily provides acids, alkalis, and food-grade and pharmaceutical salts and ingredients. It also receives, stores, and distributes various chemicals, such as liquid caustic soda, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, urea, phosphoric acid, aqua ammonia, and potassium hydroxide. In addition, this segment manufactures sodium hypochlorite and agricultural products, as well as various food-grade and pharmaceutical products that include liquid phosphates, lactates, and other blended products; repackages water treatment chemicals and bulk industrial chemicals; and performs custom blending of chemicals, and contract and private label bleach packaging. The Water Treatment segment offers chemicals, equipment, and solutions for potable water, municipal and industrial wastewater, industrial process water, and non-residential swimming pool and agriculture water. The Health and Nutrition segment offers ingredient distribution, processing, and formulation solutions to manufacturers of nutraceutical, functional food and beverage, personal care, dietary supplement and other nutritional food, and health and wellness products. Its products portfolio includes minerals, botanicals and herbs, vitamins and amino acids, excipients, joint products, sweeteners, and enzymes. The company was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Roseville, Minnesota.

How the Company Makes Money

Hawkins generates revenue through the sale of chemicals and related services across its two main segments. The Water Treatment segment is a significant contributor, offering products such as water disinfectants, coagulants, and corrosion inhibitors to municipalities and industrial customers. The Industrial segment provides specialty chemicals used in manufacturing processes, including food-grade and pharmaceutical applications. Hawkins also benefits from long-term contracts and partnerships with key customers, which provide a steady stream of recurring revenue. Additionally, the company engages in bulk chemical distribution, allowing it to optimize logistics and pricing strategies, further enhancing its profitability.

Hawkins Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Strong multi-year revenue growth with improved gross and EBIT margins versus earlier years, plus solid ROE. Offsetting factors include modest margin softening in the TTM period, a higher TTM debt-to-equity versus recent annual levels, and somewhat variable free-cash-flow conversion.

Income Statement

Revenue has expanded materially over the last several years (from ~$597M in 2021 to ~$974M in FY2025, and ~$1.06B in TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months)), showing strong multi-year growth despite a slower recent annual growth pace (FY2025 ~6% and TTM growth shown as elevated). Profitability has also improved versus earlier years, with gross margin rising from ~17.7% (FY2023) to ~23.0% (TTM) and EBIT margin moving from ~9–10% (FY2022–FY2023) to ~11.7% (TTM). The main watch-out is modest recent margin compression versus FY2025 (net margin ~8.7% in FY2025 vs ~8.0% TTM; EBITDA margin ~16.4% FY2025 vs ~15.1% TTM), suggesting incremental cost pressure or mix shift.

Balance Sheet

The balance sheet looks solid with a steadily growing equity base (from ~$265M in FY2021 to ~$519M in TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months)) and consistently strong returns on equity (~15–19% across periods). Leverage appears manageable overall, but the debt picture is mixed: debt-to-equity is reasonable in recent annual periods (~0.27–0.35 in FY2024–FY2025) yet is higher in the TTM snapshot (~0.58), which could indicate a temporary working-capital build, acquisition-related borrowings, or timing effects. Total assets have grown meaningfully, supporting scale, but the higher TTM leverage warrants monitoring.

Cash Flow

Cash generation is generally healthy: operating cash flow is strong in absolute dollars (TTM ~$137M; FY2024 ~$159M) and currently exceeds net income (TTM coverage ~1.25x; FY2025 ~1.04x), a positive sign for earnings quality. Free cash flow is positive and improving in TTM (about ~$88M) with strong TTM growth, but it has been more volatile year to year (notably negative free-cash-flow growth in FY2025 and weaker conversion in earlier years). Free cash flow runs at roughly two-thirds of net income in recent periods (TTM ~0.64), indicating some ongoing reinvestment or working-capital needs that can pressure near-term cash conversion.

Breakdown	TTM	Mar 2025	Mar 2024	Mar 2023	Mar 2022	Mar 2021
Income Statement
Total Revenue	1.06B	974.43M	919.16M	935.10M	774.54M	596.87M
Gross Profit	243.06M	225.54M	193.64M	165.12M	146.52M	123.76M
EBITDA	173.44M	159.76M	137.23M	117.23M	95.51M	78.55M
Net Income	82.41M	84.34M	75.36M	60.04M	51.54M	40.98M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	976.53M	769.87M	673.16M	602.36M	567.33M	481.44M
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	8.21M	5.10M	7.15M	7.57M	3.50M	3.00M
Total Debt	278.29M	159.74M	108.26M	120.33M	136.36M	110.57M
Total Liabilities	457.62M	309.57M	267.13M	252.34M	264.73M	216.20M
Stockholders Equity	518.91M	460.29M	406.03M	350.02M	302.60M	265.25M
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	87.69M	70.00M	119.35M	29.08M	14.32M	23.00M
Operating Cash Flow	137.44M	111.10M	159.50M	77.40M	42.84M	43.79M
Investing Cash Flow	-259.74M	-127.95M	-122.50M	-41.23M	-49.76M	-71.43M
Financing Cash Flow	122.21M	14.81M	-37.41M	-32.10M	7.42M	26.36M

Hawkins Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Positive
• Last Price: 150.95
• 50DMA: Positive
• 100DMA: Positive
• 200DMA: Negative
• MACD: Negative
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Neutral

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For HWKN, the sentiment is Positive. The current price of 150.95 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 142.94, above the 50-day MA of 146.21, and below the 200-day MA of 150.99, indicating a neutral trend. The MACD of 1.38 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 58.43 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 78.60 is Neutral, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Positive sentiment for HWKN.

Hawkins Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
CBT	74 Outperform	$3.89B	13.06	20.88%	2.72%	-7.04%	-11.28%
FUL	63 Neutral	$3.51B	23.52	7.93%	1.54%	-1.30%	-36.69%
Sector *	61 Neutral	$10.43B	7.12	-0.05%	2.87%	2.86%	-36.73%
HWKN	61 Neutral	$3.16B	38.16	16.89%	0.50%	11.86%	1.99%
AVNT	59 Neutral	$3.67B	44.89	3.49%	3.48%	1.03%	-24.57%
OLN	52 Neutral	$2.77B	-64.10	-2.22%	3.91%	4.68%	-62.80%
PRM	50 Neutral	$3.64B	-17.19	-18.02%	―	19.12%	―

Hawkins Corporate Events

Hawkins announces retirement of longtime general counsel Erstad

On December 17, 2025, Hawkins, Inc. announced that Richard G. Erstad, who has served as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for 17 years, plans to retire. As part of a planned leadership transition, Erstad is expected to step down from his role as an executive officer on December 28, 2025, at the end of the company’s third fiscal quarter, but will remain employed with Hawkins until May 2026 to help ensure continuity and a smooth handover of his responsibilities.

The most recent analyst rating on (HWKN) stock is a Hold with a $136.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Hawkins stock, see the HWKN Stock Forecast page.