Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) Short Interest Update

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 12,090,000 shares, a growth of 15.3% from the January 15th total of 10,490,000 shares. Currently, 25.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,890,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.4 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Shell Asset Management Co. boosted its holdings in Canadian Solar by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 40,499 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $450,000 after acquiring an additional 4,134 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new position in shares of Canadian Solar during the fourth quarter worth about $308,000. Bayesian Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Canadian Solar during the fourth quarter worth about $331,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of Canadian Solar by 32.0% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 323,238 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $3,594,000 after purchasing an additional 78,306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Canadian Solar by 89.9% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 26,319 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $293,000 after purchasing an additional 12,458 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CSIQ has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Canadian Solar from $13.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com downgraded Canadian Solar from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup downgraded Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Mizuho assumed coverage on Canadian Solar in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Canadian Solar currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.31.

Canadian Solar Trading Up 5.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CSIQ traded up $0.56 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $10.63. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,923,337 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,458,836. The firm has a market cap of $703.28 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -88.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. Canadian Solar has a 1 year low of $9.56 and a 1 year high of $23.95. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $11.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.68.

Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The solar energy provider reported ($0.31) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.44) by $0.13. Canadian Solar had a return on equity of 0.02% and a net margin of 0.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Canadian Solar will post -0.23 EPS for the current year.

About Canadian Solar

Canadian Solar Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides solar energy and battery energy storage products and solutions in in Asia, the Americas, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, CSI Solar and Recurrent Energy. The CSI Solar segment designs, develops, and manufactures solar ingots, wafers, cells, modules, and other solar power and battery storage products.