Deluxe Co. (NYSE:DLX) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Deluxe Co. (NYSE:DLX – Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,600,000 shares, a growth of 9.6% from the February 13th total of 1,460,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 224,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.1 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State of Tennessee Treasury Department increased its holdings in shares of Deluxe by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. State of Tennessee Treasury Department now owns 111,708 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,897,000 after buying an additional 4,131 shares in the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Deluxe by 93.1% in the fourth quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 68,899 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,170,000 after buying an additional 33,224 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Deluxe by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 130,568 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,217,000 after buying an additional 3,544 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Deluxe in the fourth quarter valued at $6,739,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Deluxe by 98.9% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 265,739 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,512,000 after buying an additional 132,157 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Cowen cut their target price on Deluxe from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, February 3rd.

Deluxe Stock Performance

DLX opened at $16.38 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $708.76 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.87. Deluxe has a 1-year low of $15.30 and a 1-year high of $33.57. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $19.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.29.

Deluxe Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 21st were issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 17th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.33%. Deluxe’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.47%.

Deluxe Company Profile

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Deluxe Corp. engages in the provision of marketing products and services. It operates through the following segments: Payments, Cloud Solutions, Promotional Solutions, and Checks. The Payments segment includes treasury management solutions, including remittance and lockbox processing, remote deposit capture, receivables management, payment processing and paperless treasury management.