World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC) Short Interest Down 18.8% in December

World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,150,000 shares, a drop of 18.8% from the December 15th total of 6,340,000 shares. Currently, 9.2% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 838,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.1 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On World Kinect

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in World Kinect in the third quarter valued at approximately $138,806,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in World Kinect by 3.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,126,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,471,000 after acquiring an additional 140,314 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP grew its stake in World Kinect by 10.6% in the second quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 2,972,932 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,714,000 after acquiring an additional 284,560 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of World Kinect during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,707,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of World Kinect by 0.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,371,030 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,379,000 after buying an additional 4,201 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.06% of the company’s stock.

World Kinect Price Performance

Shares of WKC opened at $27.66 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The stock has a market cap of $1.61 billion, a PE ratio of 12.29, a PEG ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.28. World Kinect has a 12-month low of $21.21 and a 12-month high of $31.70. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.11.

World Kinect (NYSE:WKC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62. World Kinect had a return on equity of 6.29% and a net margin of 0.30%. The company had revenue of $10.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.77 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.58 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that World Kinect will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

World Kinect Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.46%. World Kinect’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on WKC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on World Kinect from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered World Kinect from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $33.00 to $32.00 in a report on Friday, October 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.20.

World Kinect Company Profile

World Kinect Corporation operates as an energy management company in the United States, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. This segment also offers fuel management, price risk management, ground handling, dispatch services, and trip planning services, such as flight planning and scheduling, weather reports and overflight permits; payment and processing services; and operates a web-based marketplace platform.