Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW) Short Interest Up 66.5% in October

Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 741,600 shares, a growth of 66.5% from the September 30th total of 445,300 shares. Currently, 4.4% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 285,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Institutional Trading of Calavo Growers

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CVGW. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Calavo Growers by 246.7% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 261,316 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,932,000 after purchasing an additional 185,946 shares during the period. SG Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Calavo Growers by 51.4% in the first quarter. SG Capital Management LLC now owns 404,278 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,243,000 after acquiring an additional 137,325 shares during the period. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Calavo Growers by 40.7% in the second quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 356,319 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,088,000 after acquiring an additional 103,024 shares during the period. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C boosted its stake in shares of Calavo Growers by 566.9% in the second quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C now owns 70,514 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,601,000 after acquiring an additional 59,940 shares during the period. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new position in shares of Calavo Growers in the third quarter worth about $976,000. Institutional investors own 81.30% of the company’s stock.

Calavo Growers Stock Down 2.7 %

CVGW stock opened at $26.35 on Friday. Calavo Growers has a 1-year low of $20.30 and a 1-year high of $31.26. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $26.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $25.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $468.94 million, a P/E ratio of -292.72 and a beta of 0.57.

Calavo Growers (NASDAQ:CVGW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, September 9th. The company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $179.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $175.00 million. Calavo Growers had a positive return on equity of 6.35% and a negative net margin of 1.21%. Equities analysts forecast that Calavo Growers will post 1.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Calavo Growers Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd. This is a positive change from Calavo Growers’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Calavo Growers’s payout ratio is currently -888.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Calavo Growers from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 3rd.

Calavo Growers Company Profile

Calavo Growers, Inc markets and distributes avocados, prepared avocados, and other perishable foods to retail grocery and foodservice customers, club stores, mass merchandisers, food distributors, and wholesale customers worldwide. It operates through Grown and Prepared segments. The Grown segment distributes tomatoes and papayas; and procures avocados grown in California, Mexico, Peru, and Colombia.