Wabash National Co. (NYSE:WNC) Short Interest Update

Wabash National Co. (NYSE:WNC) was the target of a large drop in short interest during the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,500,000 shares, a drop of 18.0% from the January 31st total of 3,050,000 shares. Currently, 6.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 762,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.3 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Wabash National news, SVP Michael N. Pettit sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.19, for a total value of $25,785.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 117,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,015,132.13. The trade was a 1.26 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.78% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Wabash National

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Gladius Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Wabash National during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Wabash National during the third quarter valued at about $44,000. EMC Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Wabash National by 88.1% during the fourth quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 8,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $141,000 after purchasing an additional 3,864 shares in the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC grew its holdings in shares of Wabash National by 332,066.7% during the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock worth $171,000 after purchasing an additional 9,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Wabash National in the third quarter valued at approximately $192,000. Institutional investors own 97.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, DA Davidson reduced their price target on shares of Wabash National from $18.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th.

Wabash National Price Performance

Shares of WNC traded up $0.04 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $10.63. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 203,906 shares, compared to its average volume of 933,188. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.10. Wabash National has a one year low of $10.34 and a one year high of $30.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $451.03 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.63 and a beta of 1.55. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $17.40.

Wabash National (NYSE:WNC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.04). Wabash National had a negative net margin of 14.59% and a positive return on equity of 14.72%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.07 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Wabash National will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wabash National Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 24th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.01%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 3rd. Wabash National’s payout ratio is -4.91%.

About Wabash National

Wabash National Corporation provides connected solutions for the transportation, logistics, and distribution industries primarily in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Transportation Solutions and Parts & Services. The Transportation Solutions segment designs and manufactures transportation-related equipment and products dry and refrigerated van trailers, platform trailers, tank trailers, and truck-mounted tanks; truck bodies for dry-freight transportation; cargo and cargo XL bodies for commercial applications; refrigerated truck bodies; platform truck bodies; and used trailers, as well as laminated hardwood oak flooring products.