Gen Digital Inc. (NASDAQ:GEN) Short Interest Up 9.5% in March

Gen Digital Inc. (NASDAQ:GEN) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 16,420,000 shares, an increase of 9.5% from the March 15th total of 14,990,000 shares. Currently, 2.8% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,330,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days.

Institutional Trading of Gen Digital

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brinker Capital Investments LLC bought a new position in Gen Digital in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $228,000. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in Gen Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $189,000. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Gen Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $179,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Gen Digital by 676.8% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 9,236 shares of the company’s stock valued at $244,000 after purchasing an additional 8,047 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL lifted its stake in Gen Digital by 15.4% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 12,958 shares of the company’s stock valued at $344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,727 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.38% of the company’s stock.

Gen Digital Stock Performance

GEN traded up $0.25 on Wednesday, reaching $20.69. The company had a trading volume of 243,346 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,190,572. Gen Digital has a fifty-two week low of $15.45 and a fifty-two week high of $24.37. The stock has a market cap of $13.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.85. The company’s fifty day moving average is $21.67 and its 200 day moving average is $21.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.76, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Gen Digital (NASDAQ:GEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45. Gen Digital had a net margin of 36.84% and a return on equity of 47.34%. The firm had revenue of $953.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.80 million. As a group, analysts predict that Gen Digital will post 1.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gen Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 19th were given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.42%. Gen Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 23.15%.

About Gen Digital

Gen Digital Inc provides cyber safety solutions for consumers in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. It offers security and performance products comprising that provide real-time protection for PCs, Macs and mobile devices against malware, viruses, adware, and other online threats; and Norton and LifeLock identity theft protection solution that offers monitoring, alerts, and restoration services to its customers.