Short Interest in H World Group Limited Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:HTHT) Declines By 37.7%

H World Group Limited Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:HTHT) saw a large decrease in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totaling 9,379,589 shares, a decrease of 37.7% from the April 30th total of 15,052,640 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,831,821 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.1 days. Approximately 6.0% of the company’s shares are sold short.

H World Group Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:HTHT opened at $44.76 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $49.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $49.51. The firm has a market cap of $13.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.07, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93. H World Group has a 52-week low of $30.41 and a 52-week high of $56.63.

H World Group (NASDAQ:HTHT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, February 14th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $932.62 million for the quarter. H World Group had a return on equity of 39.73% and a net margin of 19.22%. As a group, research analysts forecast that H World Group will post 2.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

H World Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 4th were issued a $1.30 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 542.0%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 4th. H World Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 114.80%.

Insider Activity at H World Group

In related news, Director Theng Fong Hee sold 31,640 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.96, for a total transaction of $1,612,374.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of HTHT. TD Private Client Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of H World Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of H World Group by 81.0% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,450 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 649 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of H World Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $66,000. Osaic Holdings Inc. increased its position in shares of H World Group by 889.5% during the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 2,266 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,000 after acquiring an additional 2,037 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of H World Group by 20.1% during the fourth quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 46.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Zacks Research upgraded H World Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. UBS Group raised shares of H World Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $62.40 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of H World Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of H World Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 31st. Finally, Benchmark lifted their price target on shares of H World Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.20.

H World Group Company Profile

H World Group, formerly known as Huazhu Group, is a leading hotel management and franchising company primarily serving the China market. The company operates a broad portfolio of midscale to luxury hotel brands, including Hi Inn, Blossom, Manxin, Madison International, Joya, Grand Mercure, Novotel, Mercure and ibis. Through a network of both directly managed and franchised properties, H World Group caters to business and leisure travelers by offering consistent service standards and loyalty benefits across its brands.

In addition to its core hotel operations, H World Group provides technology-driven hospitality solutions such as centralized reservation systems, revenue management platforms and customer relationship management tools.