World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,150,000 shares, a decline of 18.8% from the December 15th total of 6,340,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 838,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.1 days. Currently, 9.2% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of World Kinect

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of World Kinect by 1,314.0% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 18,425 shares of the company’s stock worth $474,000 after buying an additional 17,122 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in World Kinect by 11.2% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,133,257 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,238,000 after purchasing an additional 113,711 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of World Kinect by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 70,091 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,808,000 after purchasing an additional 773 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of World Kinect by 3.5% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 85,434 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,204,000 after buying an additional 2,865 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of World Kinect by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,126,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,471,000 after acquiring an additional 140,314 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WKC has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on World Kinect from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of World Kinect from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.20.

World Kinect Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WKC opened at $28.27 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.11. World Kinect has a 52 week low of $21.21 and a 52 week high of $31.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.16. The firm has a market cap of $1.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.56, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.28.

World Kinect (NYSE:WKC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62. World Kinect had a net margin of 0.30% and a return on equity of 6.29%. The business had revenue of $10.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.58 earnings per share. World Kinect’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that World Kinect will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

World Kinect Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.41%. World Kinect’s payout ratio is presently 30.22%.

World Kinect Company Profile

World Kinect Corporation operates as an energy management company in the United States, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. This segment also offers fuel management, price risk management, ground handling, dispatch services, and trip planning services, such as flight planning and scheduling, weather reports and overflight permits; payment and processing services; and operates a web-based marketplace platform.