Autohome Inc. (NYSE:ATHM) Short Interest Up 12.2% in September

Autohome Inc. (NYSE:ATHM) saw a significant increase in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,030,000 shares, an increase of 12.2% from the August 31st total of 1,810,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 507,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.0 days. Currently, 1.7% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Autohome

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Autohome during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in Autohome by 99.4% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,318 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 657 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its position in shares of Autohome by 88.9% in the first quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,700 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. grew its position in shares of Autohome by 24.2% in the first quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 4,676 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $123,000 after purchasing an additional 912 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in shares of Autohome by 93.9% in the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,397 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $146,000 after acquiring an additional 2,614 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.08% of the company’s stock.

Autohome Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of Autohome stock traded up $0.97 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $33.02. 1,131,126 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 479,100. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.52. Autohome has a twelve month low of $21.89 and a twelve month high of $33.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.65 and a beta of 0.15.

Autohome (NYSE:ATHM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The information services provider reported $4.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $4.12. The firm had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. Autohome had a net margin of 25.81% and a return on equity of 8.19%. Autohome’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.59 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Autohome will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Autohome announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, September 4th that authorizes the company to buyback $0.00 in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information services provider to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ATHM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $28.00 target price (down from $31.00) on shares of Autohome in a report on Friday, July 19th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Autohome from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Benchmark downgraded shares of Autohome from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th.

About Autohome

Autohome Inc operates as an online destination for automobile consumers in the People's Republic of China. The company delivers interactive content and tools to automobile consumers through its three websites, autohome.com.cn, che168.com, and ttpai.cn on PCs, mobile devices, mobile applications, and mini apps.