Short Interest in Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) Rises By 7.9%

Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,230,000 shares, a growth of 7.9% from the September 30th total of 1,140,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 334,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.7 days. Currently, 2.7% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Itron

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its stake in shares of Itron by 98,060.6% during the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 3,337,460 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $240,631,000 after acquiring an additional 3,334,060 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in Itron by 233.6% during the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 622,483 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $32,793,000 after purchasing an additional 435,870 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Itron during the fourth quarter worth approximately $20,846,000. Amundi raised its stake in shares of Itron by 18.3% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,600,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $133,785,000 after acquiring an additional 401,394 shares during the period. Finally, Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in shares of Itron in the 4th quarter valued at $14,519,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on ITRI. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Itron from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Argus raised Itron from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, August 18th. Seaport Res Ptn reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Itron in a research report on Friday, September 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Itron from $72.00 to $65.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on Itron from $63.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.60.

Itron Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of Itron stock opened at $57.28 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.60 billion, a PE ratio of 67.39 and a beta of 1.37. Itron has a twelve month low of $39.38 and a twelve month high of $79.99. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $61.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.34. The business had revenue of $541.07 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $518.01 million. Itron had a net margin of 2.01% and a return on equity of 8.02%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Itron will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Itron

Itron, Inc, a technology and service company, provides end-to-end solutions that help manage operations in the energy, water, and smart city space worldwide. It operates through three segments: Device Solutions, Networked Solutions, and Outcomes. The Device Solutions segment offers hardware products that are used for measurement, control, or sensing.