PPDAI Group Inc. Sponsored ADR (NYSE:FINV) Short Interest Up 13.0% in April

PPDAI Group Inc. Sponsored ADR (NYSE:FINV) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 7,205,857 shares, an increase of 13.0% from the March 31st total of 6,377,563 shares. Approximately 5.1% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,033,622 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.0 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of PPDAI Group in a research note on Friday, March 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $12.10.

PPDAI Group Stock Performance

NYSE:FINV opened at $5.03 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.86, a current ratio of 2.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market cap of $1.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.32. PPDAI Group has a fifty-two week low of $4.51 and a fifty-two week high of $10.90. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $5.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $5.39.

PPDAI Group (NYSE:FINV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, February 14th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter. PPDAI Group had a net margin of 18.70% and a return on equity of 16.39%. The company had revenue of $432.21 million for the quarter.

PPDAI Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 16th will be paid a $0.306 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 16th. This represents a dividend yield of 637.0%. This is a boost from PPDAI Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.28.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PPDAI Group

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FourThought Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of PPDAI Group in the 4th quarter valued at $120,000. Abacus Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of PPDAI Group in the 4th quarter valued at $221,000. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of PPDAI Group by 28.5% in the 4th quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,462 shares of the company’s stock valued at $86,000 after acquiring an additional 3,655 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of PPDAI Group by 57.7% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 5,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 2,083 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of PPDAI Group by 110.4% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 26,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,000 after acquiring an additional 13,855 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 31.15% of the company’s stock.

About PPDAI Group

PPDAI Group Inc operates an online consumer finance marketplace that connects individual and institutional investors with personal and small-business borrowers. Through its digital platform, the company facilitates unsecured consumer loans, auto refinancing loans and small-business financing by leveraging proprietary credit assessment tools and big data analytics. Investors gain exposure to a diversified portfolio of retail credit assets, while borrowers benefit from streamlined application processes and competitive financing rates.

At the core of PPDAI’s offering is a multi-layered risk management framework that combines automated credit scoring, manual underwriting oversight and third-party data verification.