Short Interest in World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC) Drops By 18.8%

World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC) saw a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,150,000 shares, a decline of 18.8% from the December 15th total of 6,340,000 shares. Approximately 9.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 838,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.1 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of World Kinect from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $33.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.20.

World Kinect Price Performance

World Kinect stock traded up $0.44 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $28.10. The stock had a trading volume of 928,363 shares, compared to its average volume of 857,826. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $27.98 and its 200 day moving average is $28.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.49, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.28. World Kinect has a one year low of $21.21 and a one year high of $31.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

World Kinect (NYSE:WKC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.62. World Kinect had a return on equity of 6.29% and a net margin of 0.30%. The company had revenue of $10.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.58 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that World Kinect will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

World Kinect Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 23rd. World Kinect’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.22%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On World Kinect

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WKC. Pacer Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of World Kinect in the 3rd quarter valued at $138,806,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in World Kinect during the fourth quarter worth $50,707,000. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of World Kinect in the second quarter valued at about $12,207,000. Brandes Investment Partners LP grew its stake in shares of World Kinect by 10.6% in the 2nd quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 2,972,932 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,714,000 after buying an additional 284,560 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in World Kinect by 3.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,126,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,471,000 after acquiring an additional 140,314 shares during the last quarter. 97.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About World Kinect

World Kinect Corporation operates as an energy management company in the United States, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. This segment also offers fuel management, price risk management, ground handling, dispatch services, and trip planning services, such as flight planning and scheduling, weather reports and overflight permits; payment and processing services; and operates a web-based marketplace platform.