Short Interest in Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY) Grows By 6.6%

Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY) was the target of a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 420,000 shares, a growth of 6.6% from the December 15th total of 394,100 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 360,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.2 days. Currently, 0.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Kearny Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Kearny Financial from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $9.00 to $8.50 in a research note on Monday, January 6th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kearny Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of KRNY. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Kearny Financial by 53.1% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 9,367 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 3,249 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Kearny Financial by 40.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,495 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 2,445 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in Kearny Financial by 40.9% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 8,813 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 2,560 shares during the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in Kearny Financial during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $61,000. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Kearny Financial during the second quarter worth $65,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Kearny Financial Price Performance

KRNY opened at $7.23 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $7.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $7.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $466.91 million, a PE ratio of -4.99 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. Kearny Financial has a 52 week low of $5.28 and a 52 week high of $8.59.

Kearny Financial (NASDAQ:KRNY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10. Kearny Financial had a negative net margin of 27.43% and a positive return on equity of 3.05%. The business had revenue of $87.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.70 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.16 EPS.

Kearny Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 6th were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.09%. Kearny Financial’s payout ratio is -30.34%.

Kearny Financial Company Profile

Kearny Financial Corp. operates as the holding company for Kearny Bank that provides various banking products and services in the United States. It offers various deposit products, including interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts, money market deposit accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit accounts.