Short Interest in CBIZ, Inc. (NYSE:CBZ) Grows By 13.3%

CBIZ, Inc. (NYSE:CBZ) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,060,000 shares, an increase of 13.3% from the October 15th total of 935,400 shares. Approximately 2.2% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 312,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.4 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CBIZ

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors bought a new position in shares of CBIZ during the first quarter worth $40,590,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in CBIZ by 36.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,705,090 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $290,850,000 after acquiring an additional 986,774 shares in the last quarter. Cannon Global Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in CBIZ in the third quarter valued at about $740,000. Blair William & Co. IL increased its holdings in shares of CBIZ by 102.7% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 130,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,220,000 after acquiring an additional 65,968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP raised its position in shares of CBIZ by 22.8% during the third quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 332,534 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $22,376,000 after purchasing an additional 61,754 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

CBIZ Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of CBIZ stock traded up $0.34 on Monday, hitting $76.82. 42,705 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 316,295. CBIZ has a one year low of $57.01 and a one year high of $86.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.49 and a quick ratio of 1.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.86 billion, a PE ratio of 32.51 and a beta of 0.91. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $68.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $72.93.

CBIZ (NYSE:CBZ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The business services provider reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $438.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $440.16 million. CBIZ had a return on equity of 15.12% and a net margin of 7.08%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that CBIZ will post 2.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CBZ has been the topic of several recent research reports. Sidoti upgraded CBIZ from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a report on Monday, August 12th. StockNews.com raised shares of CBIZ from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th.

CBIZ Company Profile

CBIZ, Inc provides financial, insurance, and advisory services in the United States and Canada. It operates through Financial Services, Benefits and Insurance Services, and National Practices segments. The Financial Services segment offers accounting and tax, financial advisory, valuation, risk and advisory, and government healthcare consulting services.