Short Interest in Sappi Ltd. (OTCMKTS:SPPJY) Expands By 817.8%

Sappi Ltd. (OTCMKTS:SPPJY) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of May. As of May 29th, there was short interest totaling 23,624 shares, a growth of 817.8% from the May 14th total of 2,574 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 17,380 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.4 days. Currently, 0.0% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Zacks Research raised Sappi from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold”.

Sappi Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of OTCMKTS:SPPJY opened at $0.73 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $0.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $438.93 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.65 and a beta of 0.55. Sappi has a 12-month low of $0.68 and a 12-month high of $2.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91.

Sappi (OTCMKTS:SPPJY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The basic materials company reported ($0.08) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by ($0.04). Sappi had a negative return on equity of 4.85% and a negative net margin of 12.70%.The business had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. On average, research analysts anticipate that Sappi will post -0.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sappi Company Profile

Sappi Limited, trading on the OTCMKTS as SPPJY, is a global pulp and paper company headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. Originally established in 1936 as South African Pulp and Paper Industries, Sappi has grown into a diversified manufacturer of dissolving wood pulp, graphic papers, packaging and specialty papers. The company serves customers in over 150 countries and operates a network of mills and sales offices across three key regions: Europe, North America and South Africa.

Sappi’s product portfolio is organized into several main categories.