Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE:TNK) Short Interest Up 23.7% in March

Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE:TNK) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 642,600 shares, a growth of 23.7% from the March 15th total of 519,400 shares. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 482,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.3 days.

Teekay Tankers Stock Performance

Shares of TNK stock opened at $39.09 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.45 and a beta of -0.16. Teekay Tankers has a fifty-two week low of $33.35 and a fifty-two week high of $74.20. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $38.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.20.

Teekay Tankers (NYSE:TNK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The shipping company reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.01. Teekay Tankers had a return on equity of 20.67% and a net margin of 34.55%. The business had revenue of $163.42 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $158.26 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Teekay Tankers will post 7.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Teekay Tankers Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. Teekay Tankers’s payout ratio is 8.83%.

Institutional Trading of Teekay Tankers

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in Teekay Tankers by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 4,219 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $168,000 after purchasing an additional 286 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in shares of Teekay Tankers by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 13,653 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $543,000 after acquiring an additional 494 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in Teekay Tankers by 49.3% in the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,720 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares during the period. Kendall Capital Management raised its stake in Teekay Tankers by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Kendall Capital Management now owns 17,965 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $715,000 after acquiring an additional 580 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Teekay Tankers by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 10,555 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $420,000 after purchasing an additional 686 shares during the last quarter. 52.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Teekay Tankers in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Teekay Tankers has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.00.

About Teekay Tankers

Teekay Tankers Ltd. provides crude oil and other marine transportation services to oil industries in Bermuda and internationally. The company offers voyage and time charter services; offshore ship-to-ship transfer services of commodities primarily crude oil and refined oil products; and tanker commercial and technical management services.