Short Interest in Americold Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:COLD) Declines By 13.9%

by · The Markets Daily

Americold Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:COLD – Get Free Report) saw a large decline in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,540,000 shares, a decline of 13.9% from the February 28th total of 5,270,000 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,220,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in COLD. Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Americold Realty Trust by 16.3% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 28,837,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $617,085,000 after buying an additional 4,049,374 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Americold Realty Trust during the fourth quarter valued at $478,674,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Americold Realty Trust by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,382,883 shares of the company’s stock valued at $286,394,000 after acquiring an additional 121,452 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Americold Realty Trust by 115.8% in the 4th quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 6,387,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $136,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,427,083 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PGGM Investments grew its holdings in shares of Americold Realty Trust by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 5,558,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $118,961,000 after purchasing an additional 655,782 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.14% of the company’s stock.

Americold Realty Trust Stock Performance

Americold Realty Trust stock traded down $1.05 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $20.42. The company had a trading volume of 1,603,604 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,132,586. The company has a 50 day moving average of $21.82 and a 200-day moving average of $23.36. Americold Realty Trust has a 52 week low of $20.10 and a 52 week high of $30.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 0.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The firm has a market cap of $5.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -60.06, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.77.

Americold Realty Trust (NYSE:COLD – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.27. Americold Realty Trust had a negative return on equity of 2.70% and a negative net margin of 3.54%. The business had revenue of $666.44 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $684.03 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Americold Realty Trust will post 1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Americold Realty Trust Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. This is a boost from Americold Realty Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.51%. Americold Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently -270.59%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on COLD. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Americold Realty Trust from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Americold Realty Trust from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Americold Realty Trust from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Raymond James reduced their price target on Americold Realty Trust from $31.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.82.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Americold Realty Trust

About Americold Realty Trust

(Get Free Report)

Americold Realty Trust, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which focuses on the ownership, operation, development, and acquisition of temperature-controlled warehouses. It operates through the following segments: Warehouse, Third-Party Managed, Transportation, and Other. The Warehouse segment collects rent and storage fees from customers to store frozen and perishable food and other products within the firm’s real estate portfolio.

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