Short Interest in Berry Co. (NASDAQ:BRY) Rises By 8.8%

Berry Co. (NASDAQ:BRY) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,080,000 shares, a growth of 8.8% from the March 15th total of 4,670,000 shares. Approximately 6.9% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,030,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.9 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, TheStreet raised Berry from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Berry

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Berry by 302.2% in the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 8,847,928 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $66,360,000 after purchasing an additional 6,648,164 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Berry by 2,942.5% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,039,356 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $7,307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,005,195 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council increased its holdings in shares of Berry by 251.0% in the third quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 1,382,476 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $11,336,000 after purchasing an additional 988,653 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management increased its holdings in shares of Berry by 136.5% in the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,528,863 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $10,748,000 after purchasing an additional 882,441 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Berry by 18.5% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,449,782 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $27,080,000 after purchasing an additional 538,093 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.88% of the company’s stock.

Berry Price Performance

BRY stock opened at $8.33 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $7.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $640.91 million, a PE ratio of 18.11 and a beta of 1.80. Berry has a 1 year low of $6.22 and a 1 year high of $8.94.

Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 6th. The energy company reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $216.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $190.28 million. Berry had a return on equity of 5.27% and a net margin of 4.14%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.95 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Berry will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Berry Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a None dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 6.7%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from Berry’s previous None dividend of $0.21. Berry’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 104.35%.

Berry Company Profile

Berry Petroleum Company, LLC., formerly Berry Petroleum Company, is an independent energy company. The Company is engaged in the production, development, exploitation, and acquisition of oil and natural gas. The Company’s principal reserves and producing properties are located in California (South Midway-Sunset (SMWSS)-Steam Floods, North Midway-Sunset (NMWSS)-Diatomite, NMWSS-New Steam Floods, Texas (Permian and E.