Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRL) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRL) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,180,000 shares, a growth of 22.3% from the January 31st total of 2,600,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 750,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.2 days. Approximately 14.6% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its position in shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store by 22.4% during the third quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 1,349 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Cracker Barrel Old Country Store by 0.3% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 100,030 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,536,000 after buying an additional 321 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in Cracker Barrel Old Country Store by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 6,302 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $333,000 after buying an additional 361 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 12,592 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $666,000 after acquiring an additional 417 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Cracker Barrel Old Country Store by 685.9% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 558 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 487 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.01% of the company’s stock.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Stock Up 6.6 %

CBRL stock traded up $2.66 on Thursday, hitting $42.95. 2,029,991 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 776,064. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $54.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $49.12. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store has a 12-month low of $34.88 and a 12-month high of $74.21. The stock has a market cap of $956.11 million, a P/E ratio of 23.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.36 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a current ratio of 0.69.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (NASDAQ:CBRL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.38. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store had a net margin of 1.15% and a return on equity of 18.61%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cracker Barrel Old Country Store will post 2.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.33%. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on CBRL. Argus upgraded Cracker Barrel Old Country Store from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Loop Capital upped their price objective on Cracker Barrel Old Country Store from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store from $46.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store from $45.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $57.63.

About Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc develops and operates the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store concept in the United States. Its Cracker Barrel stores consist of restaurants with a gift shop. The company's restaurants serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily, as well as dine-in, pick-up, and delivery services.