Investar Holding Co. (NASDAQ:ISTR) Short Interest Update

Investar Holding Co. (NASDAQ:ISTR) was the target of a large decline in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 35,900 shares, a decline of 9.8% from the March 15th total of 39,800 shares. Currently, 0.4% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 23,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.5 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Investar

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ISTR. UBS Group AG acquired a new stake in Investar in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Investar by 79.1% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 2,560 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 1,131 shares during the last quarter. AJOVista LLC acquired a new position in shares of Investar during the 4th quarter worth approximately $55,000. Citigroup Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Investar during the 4th quarter worth approximately $118,000. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Investar by 23.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 13,166 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $139,000 after purchasing an additional 2,461 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.17% of the company’s stock.

Investar Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ:ISTR opened at $15.72 on Tuesday. Investar has a fifty-two week low of $9.07 and a fifty-two week high of $17.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $153.74 million, a PE ratio of 9.30 and a beta of 0.77. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.07.

Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.14. Investar had a return on equity of 8.64% and a net margin of 11.94%. The business had revenue of $20.25 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.84 million. Sell-side analysts expect that Investar will post 1.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Investar Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st will be given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 28th. Investar’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.67%.

Investar Company Profile

Investar Holding Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Investar Bank that provides a range of commercial banking products to individuals, professionals, and small to medium-sized businesses in south Louisiana, southeast Texas, and Alabama in the United States. The company offers various deposit products and services, such as savings, checking, money market, and individual retirement accounts, as well as various certificates of deposit; debit and credit cards; internet, mobile, and video banking services; and reciprocal deposit products.