CION Investment Corporation (NYSE:CION) Short Interest Update

CION Investment Corporation (NYSE:CION) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totaling 270,218 shares, a drop of 29.2% from the December 15th total of 381,877 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 465,739 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.6 days. Currently, 0.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Currently, 0.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 465,739 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.6 days.

Institutional Trading of CION Investment

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. North Ground Capital raised its holdings in shares of CION Investment by 100.6% during the third quarter. North Ground Capital now owns 1,002,778 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,506,000 after acquiring an additional 502,778 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in CION Investment by 33.6% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,343,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,854,000 after buying an additional 338,121 shares during the last quarter. Berger Financial Group Inc boosted its stake in CION Investment by 27.6% during the 2nd quarter. Berger Financial Group Inc now owns 487,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,664,000 after purchasing an additional 105,478 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in CION Investment by 98.8% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 199,905 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,913,000 after acquiring an additional 99,364 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CION Investment in the second quarter valued at about $934,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 32.01% of the company’s stock.

CION Investment Stock Performance

CION Investment stock traded down $0.18 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $9.47. 465,400 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 397,707. CION Investment has a 52-week low of $8.51 and a 52-week high of $12.71. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $9.80 and its 200 day moving average is $9.85. The stock has a market cap of $493.29 million, a P/E ratio of 18.57 and a beta of 1.07.

CION Investment (NYSE:CION) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.39. CION Investment had a net margin of 10.59% and a return on equity of 12.02%. The company had revenue of $78.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.41 million. Equities research analysts expect that CION Investment will post 1.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CION Investment Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 12.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. CION Investment’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 282.35%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of CION Investment from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of CION Investment in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of CION Investment from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $8.50.

CION Investment Company Profile

CION Investment Corporation is a closed‐end, non‐diversified management investment company organized as a business development company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Externally managed by CION Investment Management, LLC, the firm specializes in providing flexible capital solutions to U.S. and Canadian middle‐market companies. By combining debt and equity financing, CION seeks to support growth, acquisitions, recapitalizations and other strategic initiatives for its portfolio companies.

The company’s investment strategy centers on senior secured loans, subordinated debt and private equity interests.