Despegar.com, Corp. (NYSE:DESP) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Despegar.com, Corp. (NYSE:DESP) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 722,500 shares, an increase of 115.2% from the May 31st total of 335,700 shares. Approximately 1.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,120,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Despegar.com

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DESP. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC grew its position in Despegar.com by 27.5% during the 4th quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 396,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,750,000 after purchasing an additional 85,600 shares during the last quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft purchased a new position in shares of Despegar.com during the 4th quarter valued at about $189,000. Tucker Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Despegar.com during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Despegar.com during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,622,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of Despegar.com by 405,440.0% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 121,662 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,151,000 after acquiring an additional 121,632 shares during the period. 67.93% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on DESP shares. B. Riley upped their price objective on Despegar.com from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $14.50 target price (up from $11.50) on shares of Despegar.com in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on shares of Despegar.com from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th.

Despegar.com Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of DESP opened at $13.23 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $13.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $11.18. Despegar.com has a fifty-two week low of $6.09 and a fifty-two week high of $15.82.

Despegar.com (NYSE:DESP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 16th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $173.66 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $172.23 million. Despegar.com had a net margin of 5.41% and a negative return on equity of 44.06%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Despegar.com will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Despegar.com Company Profile

Despegar.com, Corp., an online travel company, provides a range of travel and travel-related products to leisure and corporate travelers through its websites and mobile applications in Latin America and the United States. The company operates in two segments, Travel Business and Financial Services Business.