Short Interest in Core & Main, Inc. (NYSE:CNM) Increases By 7.0%

Core & Main, Inc. (NYSE:CNM) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,350,000 shares, a growth of 7.0% from the August 31st total of 8,740,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,690,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days. Approximately 4.9% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays reduced their price objective on Core & Main from $65.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Core & Main from $57.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Core & Main from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Core & Main in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $52.00 target price for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Core & Main from $62.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.55.

Core & Main Stock Down 3.0 %

CNM traded down $1.36 during trading on Monday, reaching $44.41. 3,249,963 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,643,172. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 2.29 and a quick ratio of 1.34. Core & Main has a fifty-two week low of $27.98 and a fifty-two week high of $62.15. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $47.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $52.06. The stock has a market cap of $8.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.04.

Core & Main (NYSE:CNM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.05 billion. Core & Main had a return on equity of 21.91% and a net margin of 5.58%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.66 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Core & Main will post 2.1 EPS for the current year.

Core & Main announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, June 12th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Core & Main

In other news, Director James G. Castellano sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.22, for a total transaction of $652,750.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,769 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $614,577.18. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 3.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Core & Main

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CNM. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new position in shares of Core & Main in the fourth quarter valued at $558,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Core & Main by 24.3% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 25,114 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,015,000 after buying an additional 4,909 shares in the last quarter. Commerce Bank bought a new position in shares of Core & Main during the 4th quarter worth about $214,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Core & Main during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,331,000. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in Core & Main in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,181,000. 94.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Core & Main

Core & Main, Inc distributes water, wastewater, storm drainage, and fire protection products and related services to municipalities, private water companies, and professional contractors in the municipal, non-residential, and residential end markets in the United States. Its products portfolio include pipes, valves, hydrants, fittings, and other products and services; storm drainage products, such as corrugated piping systems, retention basins, inline drains, manholes, grates, geosynthetics, erosion control, and other related products; fire protection products, including fire protection pipes, and sprinkler heads and devices, as well as fabrication services; and meter products, such as smart meter products, meter sets, meter accessories, installation, software, and other services.