Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) Short Interest Update

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,730,000 shares, an increase of 11.3% from the December 15th total of 9,640,000 shares. Approximately 22.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 2,230,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.8 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Canadian Solar

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Canadian Solar by 25.4% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 5,115,665 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $75,456,000 after acquiring an additional 1,037,800 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Canadian Solar by 131.5% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 428,733 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $7,186,000 after purchasing an additional 243,542 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Canadian Solar by 494.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 115,328 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $1,932,000 after purchasing an additional 95,924 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in Canadian Solar in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,109,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Canadian Solar by 101.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 113,461 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $1,902,000 after buying an additional 57,246 shares during the period. 52.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CSIQ shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Canadian Solar from $13.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $14.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Canadian Solar in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Canadian Solar from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their target price for the company from $19.00 to $11.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.31.

Canadian Solar Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSIQ traded down $0.07 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $11.05. 1,467,541 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,511,765. The stock has a market capitalization of $731.07 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -92.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.27. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $11.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $13.56. Canadian Solar has a 12 month low of $10.60 and a 12 month high of $25.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The solar energy provider reported ($0.31) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by $0.13. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. Canadian Solar had a net margin of 0.01% and a return on equity of 0.02%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Canadian Solar will post -0.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Canadian Solar

Canadian Solar Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides solar energy and battery energy storage products and solutions in in Asia, the Americas, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, CSI Solar and Recurrent Energy. The CSI Solar segment designs, develops, and manufactures solar ingots, wafers, cells, modules, and other solar power and battery storage products.