KKR & Co Inc (KKR) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

KKR & Co Inc (NYSE:KKR) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 13,549,086 shares, an increase of 30.6% from the February 15th total of 10,378,172 shares. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 7,191,365 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.9 days.

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. ValueAct Holdings L.P. increased its holdings in shares of KKR & Co Inc by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. ValueAct Holdings L.P. now owns 50,700,000 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $995,241,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,000 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc bought a new stake in shares of KKR & Co Inc in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,027,380,000. Jackson Square Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of KKR & Co Inc by 8,686.8% in the 3rd quarter. Jackson Square Partners LLC now owns 22,946,175 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $625,742,000 after buying an additional 22,685,031 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of KKR & Co Inc by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,520,941 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $343,935,000 after buying an additional 1,124,564 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of KKR & Co Inc by 1,718.7% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 11,093,462 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $302,519,000 after buying an additional 10,483,481 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.85% of the company’s stock.

Get KKR & Co Inc alerts:

KKR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley set a $22.00 price objective on KKR & Co Inc and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 4th. Deutsche Bank cut their price objective on KKR & Co Inc from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 16th. ValuEngine downgraded KKR & Co Inc from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 16th. Zacks Investment Research downgraded KKR & Co Inc from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 9th. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group downgraded KKR & Co Inc from a “conviction-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $30.11.

Shares of KKR opened at $24.16 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.89 billion, a PE ratio of 12.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.66. KKR & Co Inc has a fifty-two week low of $18.30 and a fifty-two week high of $28.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09.

KKR & Co Inc (NYSE:KKR) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 1st. The asset manager reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $541.58 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $489.48 million. KKR & Co Inc had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 48.08%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.45 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that KKR & Co Inc will post 1.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 11th were issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 8th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. KKR & Co Inc’s dividend payout ratio is 25.91%.

WARNING: This article was first posted by Ticker Report and is owned by of Ticker Report. If you are reading this article on another publication, it was stolen and reposted in violation of US & international copyright and trademark laws. The original version of this article can be accessed at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/4224828/kkr-co-inc-kkr-sees-significant-increase-in-short-interest.html.

KKR & Co Inc Company Profile

KKR & Co L.P. is a private equity and real estate investment firm specializing in direct and fund of fund investments. It specializes in acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, credit special situations, growth equity, mature, mezzanine, distressed, turnaround, lower middle market and middle market investments.

Featured Article: What is a Lock-Up Period?