Geopark Ltd (NYSE:GPRK) Stock Short Interest Report for September

Geopark Ltd (NYSE:GPRK) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totaling 2,334,819 shares, an increase of 95.0% from the September 15th total of 1,197,354 shares. Approximately 4.6% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 890,214 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Geopark

In other news, Director James Park sold 120,000 shares of Geopark stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.65, for a total transaction of $1,158,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 792,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,643,938.70. The trade was a 13.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Institutional Trading of Geopark

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in Geopark by 21.2% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,309,031 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $31,436,000 after purchasing an additional 578,178 shares during the last quarter. Flax Pond Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Geopark during the 1st quarter worth about $3,352,000. Sycale Advisors NY LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geopark during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,222,000. Aventail Capital Group LP acquired a new stake in shares of Geopark during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,164,000. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV acquired a new stake in shares of Geopark during the 1st quarter valued at about $686,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GPRK has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Geopark in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $12.00 target price on shares of Geopark in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Geopark from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.00.

Geopark Stock Down 2.2%

Geopark stock traded down $0.27 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $11.57. The company had a trading volume of 618,025 shares, compared to its average volume of 790,634. Geopark has a fifty-two week low of $5.75 and a fifty-two week high of $13.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $598.54 million, a P/E ratio of 7.87 and a beta of 0.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $10.68 and its 200-day moving average is $10.05.

Geopark (NYSE:GPRK) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and gas company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.10. Geopark had a net margin of 16.00% and a return on equity of 31.33%. The company had revenue of $143.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $185.50 million.

Geopark Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.0230 per share. This represents a $0.09 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. Geopark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.12%.

Geopark Company Profile

GeoPark Limited is an independent Latin American oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Its activities include identifying hydrocarbon resources, acquiring and developing exploration and production assets, drilling wells, and producing and selling crude oil and natural gas.

Founded in 2002, GeoPark has built a portfolio of operated and non-operated assets in several South American markets. The company has been particularly associated with oil and gas operations in Colombia’s Llanos Basin and Brazil’s onshore basins, while its broader history includes exploration and production activities in other Latin American countries.

GeoPark’s operations generally encompass the full upstream process, including geological and seismic evaluation, field development, well drilling, production management, and the operation of related infrastructure.