Short Interest in Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY) Expands By 6.6%

Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 420,000 shares, a growth of 6.6% from the December 15th total of 394,100 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 360,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.2 days. Approximately 0.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kearny Financial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in KRNY. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. raised its position in Kearny Financial by 53.1% during the second quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 9,367 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Kearny Financial by 40.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,495 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 2,445 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC increased its position in shares of Kearny Financial by 40.9% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 8,813 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 2,560 shares during the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in Kearny Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at $61,000. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC purchased a new stake in Kearny Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at $65,000. 71.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on KRNY. StockNews.com raised Kearny Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Kearny Financial from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $9.00 to $8.50 in a research report on Monday, January 6th.

Kearny Financial Stock Performance

KRNY opened at $7.23 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $7.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. Kearny Financial has a 52 week low of $5.28 and a 52 week high of $8.59.

Kearny Financial (NASDAQ:KRNY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10. Kearny Financial had a positive return on equity of 3.05% and a negative net margin of 27.43%. The company had revenue of $87.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.16 earnings per share.

Kearny Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 6th were given a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 6th. Kearny Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently -30.34%.

About Kearny Financial

Kearny Financial Corp. operates as the holding company for Kearny Bank that provides various banking products and services in the United States. It offers various deposit products, including interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts, money market deposit accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit accounts.