Short Interest in Farmer Bros. Co. (NASDAQ:FARM) Declines By 74.6%

Farmer Bros. Co. (NASDAQ:FARM) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 155,600 shares, a decline of 74.6% from the February 13th total of 612,400 shares. Currently, 1.0% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 692,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.2 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Farmer Bros.

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Farmer Bros. by 5.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 209,288 shares of the company’s stock valued at $414,000 after purchasing an additional 11,390 shares in the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Farmer Bros. during the 4th quarter worth approximately $48,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Farmer Bros. by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 594,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,071,000 after acquiring an additional 40,200 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Farmer Bros. during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Penn Capital Management Company LLC grew its stake in shares of Farmer Bros. by 28.6% in the fourth quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC now owns 1,327,831 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,390,000 after purchasing an additional 295,280 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.48% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com initiated coverage on Farmer Bros. in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock.

Farmer Bros. Price Performance

NASDAQ:FARM opened at $2.22 on Friday. Farmer Bros. has a 52 week low of $1.60 and a 52 week high of $3.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 1.28. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $2.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $2.09. The firm has a market cap of $47.41 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.63 and a beta of 1.76.

Farmer Bros. (NASDAQ:FARM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by $0.18. Farmer Bros. had a negative return on equity of 27.45% and a negative net margin of 2.92%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Farmer Bros. will post -0.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Farmer Bros. Company Profile

Farmer Bros. Co engages in the roasting, wholesale, equipment servicing, and distribution of coffee, tea, and other allied products in the United States. The company offers roast and ground coffee; frozen liquid coffee; flavoured and unflavoured iced and hot teas; culinary products, including spices, pancake and biscuit mixes, gravy and sauce mixes, soup bases, dressings, and syrups and sauces, as well as coffee filters, cups, sugar, and creamers; and other beverages comprising cappuccino, cocoa, granitas, and other blender-based beverages and concentrated and ready-to-drink cold brew and iced coffee.