Leslie’s, Inc. (NASDAQ:LESL) Short Interest Update

Leslie’s, Inc. (NASDAQ:LESL) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 22,200,000 shares, a decline of 6.7% from the September 15th total of 23,790,000 shares. Currently, 12.6% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 5,450,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.1 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bfsg LLC increased its position in Leslie’s by 134.2% in the 3rd quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 48,590 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,000 after purchasing an additional 27,840 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning bought a new stake in shares of Leslie’s during the 3rd quarter worth about $77,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Leslie’s during the 3rd quarter worth about $321,000. Perpetual Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Leslie’s during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,787,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Leslie’s during the 2nd quarter worth about $244,000.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on LESL shares. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $4.00 target price on shares of Leslie’s in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Loop Capital cut their target price on Leslie’s from $6.00 to $3.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Mizuho cut their target price on Leslie’s from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Leslie’s from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $5.25 to $2.50 in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Leslie’s from $5.00 to $4.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $3.96.

Leslie’s Trading Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ:LESL opened at $2.71 on Thursday. Leslie’s has a 1-year low of $2.42 and a 1-year high of $8.21. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $2.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $3.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $500.65 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.88, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.17.

Leslie’s (NASDAQ:LESL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.03. Leslie’s had a negative return on equity of 6.11% and a net margin of 0.22%. The company had revenue of $569.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $569.99 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.40 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Leslie’s will post 0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Leslie’s Company Profile

Leslie’s, Inc operates as a direct-to-consumer pool and spa care brand in the United States. The company markets and sells pool and spa supplies and related products and services. It also offers various pool and spa maintenance items, such as chemicals, equipment and parts, cleaning and maintenance equipment, safety, recreational, and fitness related products.