Short Interest in Bancolombia S.A. (NYSE:CIB) Drops By 57.0%

Bancolombia S.A. (NYSE:CIB) saw a significant drop in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 184,600 shares, a drop of 57.0% from the March 15th total of 429,500 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 466,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.4 days. Approximately 0.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CIB. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Bancolombia during the fourth quarter worth about $24,801,000. Truffle Hound Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Bancolombia in the 4th quarter worth approximately $11,028,000. GQG Partners LLC acquired a new position in Bancolombia in the 4th quarter valued at $9,724,000. Ranmore Fund Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Bancolombia during the 4th quarter worth $8,284,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Bancolombia by 40.0% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 484,281 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $15,260,000 after purchasing an additional 138,461 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on CIB. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Bancolombia from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Bancolombia from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th.

Bancolombia Stock Up 1.9 %

CIB stock opened at $39.02 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.00. Bancolombia has a 12 month low of $30.25 and a 12 month high of $44.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.38 billion, a PE ratio of 6.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.85. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.81.

Bancolombia (NYSE:CIB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The bank reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.22. Bancolombia had a return on equity of 14.61% and a net margin of 14.14%. The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Equities analysts expect that Bancolombia will post 6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bancolombia Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a $3.8119 dividend. This is an increase from Bancolombia’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $15.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 39.08%. Bancolombia’s payout ratio is presently 235.56%.

About Bancolombia

Bancolombia SA, together with its subsidiaries, provides banking products and services in Colombia and internationally. The company operates through nine segments: Banking Colombia, Banking Panama, Banking El Salvador, Banking Guatemala, Trust, Investment Banking, Brokerage, International Banking, and All Other.