Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA) Shares Shorted: Short Interest Up 78.3% in October

by · The Cerbat Gem

Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA – Get Free Report) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totaling 38,568,625 shares, a growth of 78.3% from the September 30th total of 21,627,627 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 53,342,342 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.7 days. Approximately 5.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Corteva

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Corteva in the second quarter valued at approximately $4,560,180,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Corteva by 941.7% in the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,612,704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $644,720,000 after acquiring an additional 6,881,875 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in Corteva during the second quarter valued at about $544,246,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Corteva during the second quarter valued at about $484,927,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Corteva during the second quarter worth about $482,836,000. 81.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Corteva Price Performance

Corteva stock traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $11.60. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 30,775,104 shares, compared to its average volume of 33,863,204. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.74 billion, a PE ratio of 7.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.57. Corteva has a fifty-two week low of $11.24 and a fifty-two week high of $90.97. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.52.

Corteva (NYSE:CTVA – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.24 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $6.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.60 billion. Corteva had a net margin of 5.66% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.20 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Corteva will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Corteva Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.05 per share. This is a negative change from Corteva’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 1st. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Corteva’s dividend payout ratio is 47.68%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on CTVA. New Street Research set a $17.00 price objective on Corteva in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Corteva from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Argus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $91.00 price objective on shares of Corteva in a report on Friday, September 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of Corteva in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Corteva to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.59.

View Our Latest Research Report on Corteva

Corteva Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Corteva, Inc (NYSE: CTVA) is an agriculture company that develops and supplies products and services designed to help farmers improve crop productivity, protect yields and manage agricultural challenges. Its business is organized primarily around seed and crop protection products.

The company’s seed portfolio includes branded corn, soybean, cotton, sunflower, canola and other crop varieties, supported by plant genetics and biotechnology. Its crop protection business offers herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and seed-applied treatments, along with biological and digital agriculture solutions intended to support crop health and farm-management decisions.

Corteva was formed through the separation of the agriculture division of DowDuPont and became an independent public company in 2019.

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