The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE) Short Interest Up 17.7% in September

The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 621,700 shares, an increase of 17.7% from the September 15th total of 528,200 shares. Currently, 1.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 165,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other St. Joe news, Director Bruce R. Berkowitz sold 97,200 shares of St. Joe stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.34, for a total transaction of $5,865,048.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,878,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,078,814,274.16. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Bruce R. Berkowitz sold 97,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.34, for a total value of $5,865,048.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,878,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,078,814,274.16. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce R. Berkowitz sold 28,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.98, for a total transaction of $1,769,738.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,172,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,144,505,561.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 285,000 shares of company stock valued at $17,558,573. Insiders own 38.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On St. Joe

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in St. Joe by 1.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,765,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $334,213,000 after purchasing an additional 59,563 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in St. Joe by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,525,941 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $83,467,000 after buying an additional 5,144 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in St. Joe by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 351,319 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $19,217,000 after buying an additional 11,113 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in St. Joe by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 196,017 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,363,000 after buying an additional 10,943 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Algert Global LLC raised its holdings in shares of St. Joe by 9.4% during the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 134,851 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,376,000 after acquiring an additional 11,592 shares during the last quarter. 86.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

St. Joe Stock Performance

St. Joe stock traded up $0.73 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $59.68. 136,753 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 173,846. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.49 billion, a PE ratio of 42.63 and a beta of 1.26. St. Joe has a fifty-two week low of $45.93 and a fifty-two week high of $64.69.

St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter. St. Joe had a net margin of 18.32% and a return on equity of 10.07%. The business had revenue of $111.60 million for the quarter.

St. Joe Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. This is a positive change from St. Joe’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. St. Joe’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.00%.

St. Joe Company Profile

The St. Joe Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development, asset management, and operating company in Northwest Florida. It operates through three segments: Residential, Hospitality, and Commercial. The Residential segment engages in the development of communities into homesites for sale to homebuilders and on a limited basis to retail customers.