Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc (NASDAQ:HCCI) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc (NASDAQ:HCCI) was the target of a large growth in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 314,300 shares, a growth of 18.9% from the August 15th total of 264,300 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 273,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.2 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Heritage-Crystal Clean

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Heritage-Crystal Clean by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC now owns 1,393,049 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $45,246,000 after acquiring an additional 89,308 shares during the last quarter. Cannell Capital LLC grew its holdings in Heritage-Crystal Clean by 32.0% in the 1st quarter. Cannell Capital LLC now owns 1,122,788 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $33,246,000 after acquiring an additional 271,887 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in Heritage-Crystal Clean by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,115,475 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $32,983,000 after acquiring an additional 16,304 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in Heritage-Crystal Clean by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,112,339 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $42,035,000 after acquiring an additional 14,050 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Heritage-Crystal Clean by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,111,269 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $36,094,000 after acquiring an additional 54,826 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 61.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HCCI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $45.50 target price on shares of Heritage-Crystal Clean in a research note on Tuesday, August 29th. Barrington Research lowered shares of Heritage-Crystal Clean from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $45.50 in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Heritage-Crystal Clean from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 24th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Heritage-Crystal Clean in a report on Sunday. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Heritage-Crystal Clean in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Heritage-Crystal Clean presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.29.

Heritage-Crystal Clean Price Performance

HCCI stock opened at $45.27 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.86. Heritage-Crystal Clean has a 52 week low of $25.70 and a 52 week high of $47.98. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $45.06 and its 200 day moving average is $38.74. The firm has a market cap of $1.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.15 and a beta of 1.25.

Heritage-Crystal Clean (NASDAQ:HCCI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 9th. The industrial products company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.19). Heritage-Crystal Clean had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 15.63%. The business had revenue of $192.17 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $195.22 million. Research analysts predict that Heritage-Crystal Clean will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Heritage-Crystal Clean Company Profile

Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc, through its subsidiary, Heritage-Crystal Clean, LLC, provides parts cleaning, hazardous and non-hazardous waste, and used oil collection services to small and mid-sized customers in the industrial and vehicle maintenance sectors in North America. It operates through two segments, Environmental Services and Oil Business.