Retail Opportunity Investments (NASDAQ:ROIC) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Should You Buy?

Shares of Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. (NASDAQ:ROIC) saw strong trading volume on Wednesday . 24,384,109 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 1,957% from the previous session’s volume of 1,185,198 shares.The stock last traded at $17.33 and had previously closed at $16.59.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ROIC shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Retail Opportunity Investments from $13.50 to $16.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Retail Opportunity Investments from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Raymond James downgraded shares of Retail Opportunity Investments from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Retail Opportunity Investments from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of Retail Opportunity Investments in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $14.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $15.50.

Retail Opportunity Investments Stock Up 4.6 %

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $15.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.05. The firm has a market cap of $2.23 billion, a PE ratio of 37.72 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

Retail Opportunity Investments (NASDAQ:ROIC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.26 by ($0.01). Retail Opportunity Investments had a return on equity of 4.32% and a net margin of 17.38%. The business had revenue of $83.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $82.13 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.27 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. will post 1.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Retail Opportunity Investments Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Friday, December 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 20th. Retail Opportunity Investments’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 130.43%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of ROIC. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Retail Opportunity Investments by 20.4% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,031,790 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $74,975,000 after buying an additional 1,020,314 shares in the last quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Retail Opportunity Investments by 6.5% in the 1st quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC now owns 9,319,113 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $114,346,000 after purchasing an additional 571,370 shares in the last quarter. Lasalle Investment Management Securities LLC lifted its stake in Retail Opportunity Investments by 14.8% in the 1st quarter. Lasalle Investment Management Securities LLC now owns 3,649,182 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $46,783,000 after purchasing an additional 469,905 shares in the last quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Retail Opportunity Investments in the 3rd quarter worth $4,556,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Retail Opportunity Investments by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,815,894 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $254,040,000 after purchasing an additional 160,068 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.16% of the company’s stock.

About Retail Opportunity Investments

Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. (Nasdaq: ROIC), is a fully integrated, self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) that specializes in the acquisition, ownership and management of grocery-anchored shopping centers located in densely populated, metropolitan markets across the West Coast. As of December 31, 2023, ROIC owned 94 shopping centers encompassing approximately 10.6 million square feet.