Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) Short Interest Up 21.6% in February

Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,350,000 shares, a growth of 21.6% from the February 13th total of 1,110,000 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 375,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.6 days.

Institutional Trading of Korn Ferry

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of KFY. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Korn Ferry in the fourth quarter valued at about $644,000. Vise Technologies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Korn Ferry by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 4,947 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $334,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Castleark Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Korn Ferry by 27.8% during the 4th quarter. Castleark Management LLC now owns 75,240 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,075,000 after purchasing an additional 16,350 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in Korn Ferry by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 161,536 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,896,000 after purchasing an additional 15,179 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sovereign s Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Korn Ferry in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,221,000. 98.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Korn Ferry Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of KFY traded down $0.31 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $67.09. The stock had a trading volume of 84,560 shares, compared to its average volume of 362,603. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 2.07. The business’s fifty day moving average is $67.53 and its 200 day moving average is $70.60. Korn Ferry has a 52-week low of $59.78 and a 52-week high of $80.64. The firm has a market cap of $3.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.34 and a beta of 1.57.

Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 11th. The business services provider reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.06. Korn Ferry had a net margin of 9.03% and a return on equity of 14.27%. The business had revenue of $676.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $650.45 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.07 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Korn Ferry will post 4.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Korn Ferry Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 27th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 27th. This is a positive change from Korn Ferry’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. Korn Ferry’s dividend payout ratio is 41.29%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on KFY shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Korn Ferry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Korn Ferry from $78.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th.

About Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry, together with its subsidiaries, provides organizational consulting services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Consulting, Digital, Executive Search, and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) & Professional Search. The company provides executive search services to recruit board level, chief executive, other senior executive, and general management talent of organizations.