YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) saw a significant drop in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,480,000 shares, a drop of 13.2% from the February 28th total of 4,010,000 shares. Currently, 0.9% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,960,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.8 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of YPF. Advisors Preferred LLC acquired a new stake in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima during the fourth quarter worth $44,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in YPF Sociedad Anónima by 130.3% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,211 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $94,000 after buying an additional 1,251 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,427 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $103,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares during the period. Verde Servicos Internacionais S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima in the fourth quarter valued at about $128,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 41.3% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 3,829 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $163,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 10.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $38.00 target price (up previously from $30.00) on shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $59.50 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Bank of America raised YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $31.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, YPF Sociedad Anónima currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $42.02.

YPF Sociedad Anónima Stock Performance

YPF Sociedad Anónima stock traded down $1.63 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $33.88. 1,426,114 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,083,264. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market cap of $13.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 1.89. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a 12-month low of $16.18 and a 12-month high of $47.43. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.75.

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 7th. The oil and gas exploration company reported ($0.74) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($1.25). The company had revenue of $4.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.86 billion. YPF Sociedad Anónima had a return on equity of 32.76% and a net margin of 4.15%. Equities research analysts predict that YPF Sociedad Anónima will post 7.25 EPS for the current year.

YPF Sociedad Anónima Company Profile

YPF Sociedad Anónima, an energy company, engages in the oil and gas upstream and downstream activities in Argentina. Its upstream operations include the exploration, exploitation, and production of crude oil, and natural gas. The company’s downstream operations include petrochemical production and crude oil refining; transportation and distribution refined and petrochemical products; commercialization of crude oil, petrochemical products, and specialties.