Middlesex Water (NASDAQ:MSEX) Short Interest Down 11.6% in February

Middlesex Water (NASDAQ:MSEX – Get Rating) saw a large drop in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 518,300 shares, a drop of 11.6% from the February 13th total of 586,500 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 168,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days. Approximately 3.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MSEX. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Middlesex Water from $97.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 1st. StockNews.com cut Middlesex Water from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 27th.

Middlesex Water Price Performance

Shares of MSEX stock opened at $72.99 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.67 and a beta of 0.75. Middlesex Water has a fifty-two week low of $72.64 and a fifty-two week high of $109.51. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $82.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.26 and a current ratio of 0.32.

Middlesex Water Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 14th were given a dividend of $0.313 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 13th. This represents a $1.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. Middlesex Water’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.52%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Middlesex Water

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MSEX. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Middlesex Water by 0.3% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 191,533 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $20,144,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Middlesex Water in the first quarter worth $740,000. Citigroup Inc. raised its stake in shares of Middlesex Water by 17.4% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 17,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,867,000 after purchasing an additional 2,627 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in shares of Middlesex Water by 2.1% in the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 6,060 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $645,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Middlesex Water by 57.2% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 9,417 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $990,000 after purchasing an additional 3,426 shares during the last quarter. 67.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Middlesex Water

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Middlesex Water Co owns and operates regulated water utility and wastewater systems. The firm’s services include water production, treatment, & distribution, full service municipal contract operations, wastewater collection and treatment. It operates through two segments: Regulated and Non-Regulated.