Short Interest in Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE:DQ) Decreases By 20.4%

Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE:DQ) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 3,050,000 shares, a drop of 20.4% from the February 13th total of 3,830,000 shares. Approximately 4.7% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 871,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Continental General Insurance Co. grew its stake in shares of Daqo New Energy by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Continental General Insurance Co. now owns 5,916,202 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $115,011,000 after purchasing an additional 322,084 shares in the last quarter. Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. lifted its holdings in Daqo New Energy by 5,286.6% in the fourth quarter. Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. now owns 2,714,780 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $52,775,000 after purchasing an additional 2,664,381 shares during the period. Ariose Capital Management Ltd grew its position in Daqo New Energy by 27.5% in the 4th quarter. Ariose Capital Management Ltd now owns 1,505,709 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $29,271,000 after buying an additional 324,585 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Daqo New Energy by 67.5% during the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 886,655 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $17,237,000 after buying an additional 357,460 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Daqo New Energy by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 842,921 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $17,170,000 after buying an additional 8,983 shares in the last quarter. 47.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Daqo New Energy to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.26.

Daqo New Energy Stock Performance

Shares of DQ opened at $19.02 on Monday. Daqo New Energy has a one year low of $13.62 and a one year high of $30.85. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $19.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.47. The company has a market capitalization of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.28 and a beta of 0.41.

Daqo New Energy (NYSE:DQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The semiconductor company reported ($2.71) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.69) by ($2.02). The firm had revenue of $195.36 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $153.54 million. Daqo New Energy had a negative net margin of 9.16% and a negative return on equity of 1.90%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Daqo New Energy will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Daqo New Energy Company Profile

Daqo New Energy Corp., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells polysilicon to photovoltaic product manufacturers in the People's Republic of China. Its products are used in ingots, wafers, cells, and modules for solar power solutions. The company was formerly known as Mega Stand International Limited and changed its name to Daqo New Energy Corp.