Short Interest in Investar Holding Co. (NASDAQ:ISTR) Grows By 12.3%

Investar Holding Co. (NASDAQ:ISTR) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 236,200 shares, an increase of 12.3% from the September 15th total of 210,400 shares. Approximately 2.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 54,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.3 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in shares of Investar by 2,810.1% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 10,622 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $164,000 after acquiring an additional 10,257 shares during the last quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Investar during the 1st quarter worth $185,000. Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Investar by 92.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 20,670 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $318,000 after buying an additional 9,921 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Investar in the 2nd quarter valued at $329,000. Finally, Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of Investar by 24.8% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 23,188 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $379,000 after buying an additional 4,614 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com cut Investar from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th.

Investar Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of ISTR stock opened at $20.50 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The company has a market capitalization of $201.49 million, a P/E ratio of 11.45 and a beta of 0.78. Investar has a 12-month low of $9.07 and a 12-month high of $20.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $18.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.91.

Investar (NASDAQ:ISTR) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.06. Investar had a return on equity of 6.69% and a net margin of 10.04%. The business had revenue of $38.54 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.23 million. Research analysts forecast that Investar will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Investar Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $0.105 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This is a positive change from Investar’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. This represents a $0.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. Investar’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.46%.

About Investar

Investar Holding Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Investar Bank that provides a range of commercial banking products to individuals, professionals, and small to medium-sized businesses in south Louisiana, southeast Texas, and Alabama in the United States. The company offers various deposit products and services, such as savings, checking, money market, and individual retirement accounts, as well as various certificates of deposit; debit and credit cards; internet, mobile, and video banking services; and reciprocal deposit products.