PPDAI Group Inc. Sponsored ADR (NYSE:FINV) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PPDAI Group

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FINV. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in PPDAI Group by 573.9% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,050,439 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,116,000 after purchasing an additional 894,566 shares during the period. Abacus Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in PPDAI Group in the 4th quarter worth about $221,000. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in PPDAI Group by 114.5% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 59,266 shares of the company’s stock worth $571,000 after purchasing an additional 31,641 shares during the period. FourThought Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in PPDAI Group in the 4th quarter worth about $120,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in PPDAI Group by 110.4% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 26,404 shares of the company’s stock worth $138,000 after purchasing an additional 13,855 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 31.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

PPDAI Group Stock Up 2.4%

Shares of FINV opened at $4.96 on Friday. PPDAI Group has a 52 week low of $4.51 and a 52 week high of $10.90. 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 capitalization of $1.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.70 and a beta of 0.30. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $5.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $5.40.

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

PPDAI Group Increases Dividend

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

PPDAI Group Company Profile

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.