Kirby Co. (NYSE:KEX) Short Interest Up 37.1% in May

Kirby Co. (NYSE:KEX) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,590,000 shares, a growth of 37.1% from the April 30th total of 1,160,000 shares. Currently, 2.9% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 574,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Kirby from $116.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kirby

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Kirby by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 415,042 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $43,911,000 after purchasing an additional 10,486 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Kirby in the 4th quarter valued at about $18,749,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Kirby by 24.3% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 29,659 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $3,143,000 after buying an additional 5,804 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Kirby by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,402 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $466,000 after buying an additional 379 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in Kirby in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $349,000. Institutional investors own 96.15% of the company’s stock.

Kirby Price Performance

Kirby stock opened at $113.53 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $101.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $106.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The company has a market capitalization of $6.37 billion, a PE ratio of 23.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.91. Kirby has a one year low of $83.94 and a one year high of $132.21.

Kirby (NYSE:KEX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The shipping company reported $1.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.06. Kirby had a return on equity of 9.71% and a net margin of 8.78%. The firm had revenue of $785.66 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $824.12 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Kirby will post 6.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kirby Company Profile

Kirby Corporation operates domestic tank barges in the United States. Its Marine Transportation segment provides marine transportation service and towing vessel transporting bulk liquid product, as well as operates tank barge throughout the Mississippi River System, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, coastwise along three United States coasts, and in Alaska and Hawaii.