Brf S.A. (NYSE:BRFS) Short Interest Up 19.5% in December

Brf S.A. (NYSE:BRFS) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,700,000 shares, a growth of 19.5% from the December 15th total of 4,770,000 shares. Approximately 0.4% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,390,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.4 days.

BRF Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:BRFS traded up $0.03 during trading on Friday, reaching $3.76. 3,000,111 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,765,155. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $4.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.93. BRF has a 12-month low of $2.45 and a 12-month high of $4.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.06 billion, a PE ratio of 8.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.23 and a beta of 1.88.

BRF Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 18th were given a dividend of $0.0217 per share. This represents a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 18th. BRF’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.93%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BRF

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of BRF during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC bought a new stake in BRF during the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in BRF during the 3rd quarter valued at $826,000. XTX Topco Ltd raised its position in shares of BRF by 142.6% in the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 113,266 shares of the company’s stock worth $495,000 after acquiring an additional 66,583 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of BRF by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,006,059 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,396,000 after purchasing an additional 22,608 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com raised BRF from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BRF has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $10.70.

BRF Company Profile

BRF SA raises, produces, and slaughters poultry and pork for processing, production, and sale of fresh meat, processed products, pasta, margarine, pet food, and other products. The company provides frozen whole and cut chicken, frozen pork, and turkey, and halal products for Islamic markets; processed foods, such as marinated, frozen, seasoned whole, and cut chicken, roosters, sausages, ham products, bologna, frankfurters, salamis, bacons, cold meats, and other smoked products; and hamburgers, steaks, breaded meat products, kibbeh, and meatballs, as well as chicken sausages, hot dogs, and chicken bologna.