Short Interest in Torm Plc (NASDAQ:TRMD) Declines By 45.7%

Torm Plc (NASDAQ:TRMD) saw a large drop in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totaling 1,015,404 shares, a drop of 45.7% from the May 31st total of 1,868,749 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 693,716 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.5 days. Approximately 1.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jacob Balslev Meldgaard sold 170,133 shares of Torm stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.30, for a total transaction of $5,495,295.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 348,411 shares in the company, valued at $11,253,675.30. The trade was a 32.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Torm

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TRMD. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH lifted its position in shares of Torm by 275.8% in the 4th quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 91,286 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,785,000 after acquiring an additional 66,992 shares during the period. Tweedy Browne Co LLC increased its position in shares of Torm by 109.5% during the third quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC now owns 40,007 shares of the company’s stock valued at $825,000 after purchasing an additional 20,914 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Torm during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,830,000. Folketrygdfondet raised its stake in shares of Torm by 174.0% in the fourth quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 238,662 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,673,000 after purchasing an additional 151,563 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fearnley Asset Management AS bought a new position in Torm in the fourth quarter worth $4,048,000. 73.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Pareto Securities cut shares of Torm from a “hold” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Torm from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Torm in a report on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Evercore set a $35.00 price objective on shares of Torm in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Torm currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.00.

Torm Stock Performance

TRMD traded up $0.27 on Wednesday, hitting $26.33. The company had a trading volume of 198,332 shares, compared to its average volume of 846,776. The stock has a market cap of $2.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.76 and a beta of 0.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $30.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $26.90. Torm has a 1-year low of $16.75 and a 1-year high of $35.33.

Torm (NASDAQ:TRMD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.33 by ($0.15). Torm had a net margin of 24.45% and a return on equity of 15.81%. The company had revenue of $402.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $297.43 million.

Torm Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 28th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 28th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.6%. Torm’s payout ratio is currently 60.00%.

About Torm

Torm A/S (NASDAQ: TRMD) is an international shipping company specializing in the transportation of refined petroleum products. The firm owns and operates a modern fleet of product tankers, including both Handysize and MR vessels, which are designed to carry a broad range of clean petroleum cargoes such as gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. Torm’s core business revolves around voyage and time-charter contracts with major oil companies, trading houses and other energy sector clients around the world.

The company’s fleet is deployed on global trade routes, with particular focus on major refining and consumption regions in Europe, North America and Asia.