Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT) Short Interest Down 29.8% in March

Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 814,700 shares, a decrease of 29.8% from the February 28th total of 1,160,000 shares. Currently, 6.2% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 149,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.5 days.

Institutional Trading of Haverty Furniture Companies

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Haverty Furniture Companies by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 6,813 shares of the company’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 548 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in Haverty Furniture Companies by 30.9% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 5,184 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,000 after buying an additional 1,224 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in shares of Haverty Furniture Companies by 20.9% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 11,558 shares of the company’s stock worth $257,000 after acquiring an additional 1,997 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its stake in shares of Haverty Furniture Companies by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 13,349 shares of the company’s stock worth $297,000 after acquiring an additional 2,426 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in shares of Haverty Furniture Companies in the fourth quarter valued at $56,000. 80.57% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Haverty Furniture Companies Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of HVT traded up $0.14 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $19.86. 182,598 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 191,129. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.11. The stock has a market cap of $321.55 million, a PE ratio of 12.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.44. Haverty Furniture Companies has a twelve month low of $19.34 and a twelve month high of $33.04.

Haverty Furniture Companies (NYSE:HVT) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 24th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.30. Haverty Furniture Companies had a net margin of 3.57% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The firm had revenue of $184.35 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $179.84 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Haverty Furniture Companies will post 0.88 EPS for the current year.

Haverty Furniture Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, March 6th were paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.45%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 6th. Haverty Furniture Companies’s payout ratio is 109.40%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Haverty Furniture Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th.

Haverty Furniture Companies Company Profile

Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc operates as a specialty retailer of residential furniture and accessories in the United States. The company offers furniture merchandise under the Havertys brand name. It also provides custom upholstery products and eclectic looks; and mattress product lines under the Tempur-Pedic, Serta, Sealy, and Stearns and Foster names.