Berry Co. (NASDAQ:BRY) Short Interest Update

Berry Co. (NASDAQ:BRY) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,110,000 shares, a drop of 17.2% from the December 15th total of 1,340,000 shares. Approximately 1.5% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,360,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.8 days.

Institutional Trading of Berry

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Berry by 54.2% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 41,475 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $171,000 after acquiring an additional 14,579 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its position in shares of Berry by 29.5% in the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 102,185 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $422,000 after purchasing an additional 23,266 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Berry by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 269,502 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,385,000 after buying an additional 4,686 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in Berry by 155.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 200,120 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,029,000 after buying an additional 121,693 shares during the period. Finally, McIlrath & Eck LLC purchased a new stake in Berry in the third quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Berry from $7.00 to $5.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 18th.

Berry Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of BRY stock traded up $0.01 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $5.00. 1,053,937 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 939,168. Berry has a 12-month low of $3.72 and a 12-month high of $8.88. The business’s fifty day moving average is $4.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $5.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $384.70 million, a P/E ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 1.64.

Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The energy company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $259.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $186.67 million. Berry had a net margin of 9.40% and a return on equity of 6.50%. Berry’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.15 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Berry will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Berry Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 25th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. Berry’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.11%.

Berry Company Profile

Berry Petroleum Company, LLC., formerly Berry Petroleum Company, is an independent energy company. The Company is engaged in the production, development, exploitation, and acquisition of oil and natural gas. The Company’s principal reserves and producing properties are located in California (South Midway-Sunset (SMWSS)-Steam Floods, North Midway-Sunset (NMWSS)-Diatomite, NMWSS-New Steam Floods, Texas (Permian and E.