PLDT Inc. (NYSE:PHI) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

PLDT Inc. (NYSE:PHI) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 261,700 shares, a decrease of 23.5% from the August 15th total of 342,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 25,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 10.2 days.

PLDT Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of PLDT stock opened at $26.30 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.78, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.67. PLDT has a fifty-two week low of $19.02 and a fifty-two week high of $30.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.21, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.33. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $26.70 and a 200 day moving average of $25.07.

PLDT (NYSE:PHI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 13th. The technology company reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. PLDT had a return on equity of 21.49% and a net margin of 12.33%. The business had revenue of $923.00 million for the quarter. As a group, research analysts predict that PLDT will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current year.

PLDT Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a Semi-Annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Investors of record on Monday, August 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.634 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 26th. This represents a dividend yield of 4.4%. This is a positive change from PLDT’s previous Semi-Annual dividend of $0.60.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PLDT

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Creative Planning lifted its position in PLDT by 19.6% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 56,050 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,377,000 after purchasing an additional 9,169 shares during the period. Kathmere Capital Management LLC lifted its position in PLDT by 80.2% in the second quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 18,887 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $464,000 after purchasing an additional 8,408 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its position in PLDT by 21.6% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 16,341 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $396,000 after purchasing an additional 2,903 shares during the period. Oldfield Partners LLP lifted its position in PLDT by 1.1% in the second quarter. Oldfield Partners LLP now owns 45,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,105,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in PLDT by 10.9% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 93,479 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,296,000 after purchasing an additional 9,206 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 2.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded PLDT from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th.

About PLDT

PLDT Inc provides telecommunications and digital services in the Philippines. The company operates through three segments: Wireless, Fixed Line, and Others. It offers cellular mobile, Internet broadband distribution, operations support, software development, and satellite information and messaging services; and sells Wi-Fi access equipment.