Short Interest in Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) Decreases By 19.9%

Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) saw a large drop in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 276,000 shares, a drop of 19.9% from the February 13th total of 344,400 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 109,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Institutional Trading of Piper Sandler Companies

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Piper Sandler Companies by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 754 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $226,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Piper Sandler Companies by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 5,137 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,541,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Piper Sandler Companies by 2.3% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,845 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $524,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Lido Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Piper Sandler Companies by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 4,185 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,255,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its stake in shares of Piper Sandler Companies by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 1,394 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $418,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.79% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PIPR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Piper Sandler Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Piper Sandler Companies in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Piper Sandler Companies from $321.00 to $286.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th.

Piper Sandler Companies Price Performance

NYSE PIPR traded up $5.11 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $257.90. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 78,400 shares, compared to its average volume of 105,113. Piper Sandler Companies has a 52-week low of $183.58 and a 52-week high of $351.80. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $274.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $294.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.23 and a beta of 1.46.

Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $4.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.99 by $0.81. Piper Sandler Companies had a net margin of 11.87% and a return on equity of 17.00%. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.03 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Piper Sandler Companies will post 14.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Piper Sandler Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.01%. Piper Sandler Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.44%.

About Piper Sandler Companies

Piper Sandler Companies operates as an investment bank and institutional securities firm that serves corporations, private equity groups, public entities, non-profit entities, and institutional investors in the United States and internationally. It offers investment banking services and institutional sales, trading, and research services for various equity and fixed income products; advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt private placements, and debt and restructuring advisory; raises capital through equity and debt financings; underwrites municipal issuances; and municipal financial advisory and loan placement services, as well as various over-the-counter derivative products.