Copa Holdings, S.A. (NYSE:CPA) Short Interest Down 6.2% in December

Copa Holdings, S.A. (NYSE:CPA) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,360,000 shares, a decrease of 6.2% from the November 30th total of 1,450,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 352,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.9 days. Currently, 4.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Copa

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bell Investment Advisors Inc raised its holdings in Copa by 29.6% in the 3rd quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc now owns 626 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Copa during the third quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in shares of Copa by 69,000.0% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 1,382 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $132,000 after purchasing an additional 1,380 shares in the last quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC bought a new position in Copa in the third quarter worth $240,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in Copa by 29.3% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,690 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $256,000 after buying an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.09% of the company’s stock.

Copa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CPA opened at $87.88 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.81, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.45. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $93.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $92.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. Copa has a twelve month low of $80.01 and a twelve month high of $114.00.

Copa (NYSE:CPA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The transportation company reported $3.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.48 by $0.02. Copa had a return on equity of 28.46% and a net margin of 18.20%. The company had revenue of $854.71 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $864.90 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.39 earnings per share. Copa’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Copa will post 14.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Copa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $1.61 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $6.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.33%. Copa’s payout ratio is 42.59%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of Copa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $148.83.

About Copa

Copa Holdings, SA, through its subsidiaries, provides airline passenger and cargo services. The company offers approximately 375 daily scheduled flights to 82 destinations in 32 countries in North, Central, and South America, as well as the Caribbean from its Panama City hub. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 106 aircraft comprising 76 Boeing 737-Next Generation aircraft, 29 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft, and one Boeing 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighter.