CBIZ, Inc. (NYSE:CBZ) Short Interest Up 13.3% in October

CBIZ, Inc. (NYSE:CBZ) saw a significant increase in short interest in 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 shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 312,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on CBZ shares. Sidoti upgraded CBIZ from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $86.00 in a research report on Monday, August 12th. StockNews.com upgraded CBIZ from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CBIZ

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CBZ. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in CBIZ by 3.5% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 71,167 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,587,000 after buying an additional 2,380 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in CBIZ by 8.5% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 8,617 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $676,000 after buying an additional 678 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its position in CBIZ by 23.1% during the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 16,848 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,323,000 after buying an additional 3,160 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its position in CBIZ by 102.7% during the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 130,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,220,000 after buying an additional 65,968 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 buying an additional 986,774 shares during the period. 87.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CBIZ Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CBZ traded up $0.39 on Monday, hitting $76.87. The company had a trading volume of 40,426 shares, compared to its average volume of 316,285. The company has a current ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. CBIZ has a 52-week low of $57.01 and a 52-week high of $86.36. The business has a 50 day moving average of $68.76 and a 200 day moving average of $72.93. The company has a market cap of $3.86 billion, a PE ratio of 32.51 and a beta of 0.91.

CBIZ (NYSE:CBZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The business services provider reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.08. CBIZ had a return on equity of 15.12% and a net margin of 7.08%. The business had revenue of $438.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $440.16 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.66 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that CBIZ will post 2.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.