Erste Group Bank AG (OTCMKTS:EBKDY) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Erste Group Bank AG (OTCMKTS:EBKDY) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in August. As of August 14th, there was short interest totaling 15,025 shares, a decline of 51.0% from the July 30th total of 30,669 shares. Approximately 0.0% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 77,679 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.2 days.

Erste Group Bank Trading Up 0.7%

EBKDY traded up $0.52 during trading on Friday, hitting $71.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 24,321 shares, compared to its average volume of 46,143. Erste Group Bank has a twelve month low of $47.02 and a twelve month high of $73.10. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $67.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.64, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.85.

Erste Group Bank (OTCMKTS:EBKDY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.01. Erste Group Bank had a return on equity of 11.32% and a net margin of 18.39%.The company had revenue of $4.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.48 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Erste Group Bank will post 5.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on EBKDY shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Erste Group Bank to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Erste Group Bank from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Oddo Bhf upgraded shares of Erste Group Bank from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of Erste Group Bank in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Erste Group Bank in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Erste Group Bank has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

About Erste Group Bank

Erste Group Bank AG is an Austrian banking group headquartered in Vienna that operates as a universal bank serving retail, corporate and institutional customers. The group offers a broad range of financial services including deposit-taking, lending, mortgage financing, payment and transaction banking, and wealth management. Erste Group also provides capital markets services, corporate and investment banking solutions, and a range of insurance and pension-linked products through partnerships and subsidiary operations.

Erste Group maintains a significant regional presence beyond Austria, with operations across several Central and Eastern European countries.