Cameco Co. (NYSE:CCJ) Short Interest Down 7.3% in December

Cameco Co. (NYSE:CCJ) (TSE:CCO) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 15,520,000 shares, a decline of 7.3% from the December 15th total of 16,750,000 shares. Approximately 3.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 4,180,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.7 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cameco

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its position in Cameco by 58.0% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,777,866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $181,382,000 after purchasing an additional 1,386,639 shares during the period. M&G PLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cameco during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $66,227,000. Segra Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cameco during the third quarter worth approximately $53,013,000. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its stake in Cameco by 99.7% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 1,680,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $80,249,000 after acquiring an additional 839,077 shares during the last quarter. Finally, King Luther Capital Management Corp acquired a new stake in Cameco during the 2nd quarter worth $32,740,000. Institutional investors own 70.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Janney Montgomery Scott upgraded Cameco to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $66.56.

Cameco Price Performance

Shares of CCJ stock traded up $2.11 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $51.62. 6,233,489 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,670,748. Cameco has a 52 week low of $35.43 and a 52 week high of $62.55. The stock has a market cap of $22.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 271.69 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.88 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $54.53 and its 200-day moving average is $49.23.

Cameco (NYSE:CCJ) (TSE:CCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The basic materials company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.40). Cameco had a return on equity of 3.33% and a net margin of 4.15%. The company had revenue of $721.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $646.83 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.24 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 25.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cameco will post 0.47 EPS for the current year.

Cameco Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 27th were given a $0.118 dividend. This represents a yield of 0.22%. This is a positive change from Cameco’s previous annual dividend of $0.09. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 27th. Cameco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.16%.

Cameco Company Profile

Cameco Corporation provides uranium for the generation of electricity. It operates through Uranium, Fuel Services, Westinghouse segments. The Uranium segment is involved in the exploration for, mining, and milling, purchase, and sale of uranium concentrate. The Fuel Services segment engages in the refining, conversion, and fabrication of uranium concentrate, as well as the purchase and sale of conversion services.