Short Interest in Adecoagro S.A. (NYSE:AGRO) Expands By 96.8%

Adecoagro S.A. (NYSE:AGRO) saw a significant increase in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,240,000 shares, an increase of 96.8% from the May 31st total of 630,200 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 626,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days. Currently, 1.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Adecoagro

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sapient Capital LLC acquired a new position in Adecoagro in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,294,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Adecoagro in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $958,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Adecoagro by 60.9% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 442,671 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,914,000 after purchasing an additional 167,608 shares in the last quarter. Helikon Investments Ltd raised its holdings in Adecoagro by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. Helikon Investments Ltd now owns 1,292,270 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,344,000 after buying an additional 142,595 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its stake in Adecoagro by 1.5% in the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 205,807 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,408,000 after buying an additional 2,998 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 45.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com raised shares of Adecoagro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Adecoagro currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.17.

Adecoagro Price Performance

AGRO opened at $9.73 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $10.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $10.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.01 billion, a PE ratio of 4.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.11. Adecoagro has a 52 week low of $8.96 and a 52 week high of $12.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 2.87.

Adecoagro (NYSE:AGRO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 16th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Adecoagro had a return on equity of 10.55% and a net margin of 19.18%. The company had revenue of $261.78 million during the quarter. As a group, analysts anticipate that Adecoagro will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Adecoagro Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 14th were issued a $0.1682 dividend. This is a positive change from Adecoagro’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 13th. This represents a dividend yield of 2.9%. Adecoagro’s payout ratio is 14.41%.

About Adecoagro

Adecoagro SA operates as an agro-industrial company in South America. The company mainly operates through three segments: Farming; Sugar, Ethanol and Energy; and Land Transformation. It engages in farming crops, rice and other agricultural products, dairy operations, and land transformation activities, as well as sugar, ethanol, and energy production activities.