Short Interest in Torm Plc (NASDAQ:TRMD) Expands By 26.3%

Torm Plc (NASDAQ:TRMD) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 665,121 shares, a growth of 26.3% from the March 31st total of 526,628 shares. Approximately 0.7% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 697,536 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.0 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Torm

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Torm by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,341,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,629,000 after purchasing an additional 11,457 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Torm during the 4th quarter valued at about $24,830,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in Torm by 25.8% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 536,425 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,503,000 after acquiring an additional 110,000 shares during the period. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Torm during the second quarter worth about $7,523,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in Torm by 119.5% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 252,811 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,950,000 after acquiring an additional 137,648 shares during the period. 73.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TRMD has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore set a $35.00 target price on shares of Torm in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Torm from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Torm in a research note on Friday, April 17th. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Torm has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.00.

Torm Stock Up 0.3%

NASDAQ TRMD traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $32.19. 159,782 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 762,922. Torm has a 12 month low of $15.79 and a 12 month high of $32.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.28 billion, a PE ratio of 11.34 and a beta of 0.02. The company has a 50 day moving average of $28.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.32.

Torm (NASDAQ:TRMD) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.04. Torm had a net margin of 21.29% and a return on equity of 13.26%. The company had revenue of $352.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $236.21 million.

Torm Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 12th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 12th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.7%. This is a boost from Torm’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Torm’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.83%.

Torm Company Profile

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.