Short Interest in The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE) Rises By 16.7%

The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 667,300 shares, a growth of 16.7% from the October 15th total of 571,600 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 187,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.6 days. Currently, 1.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at St. Joe

In other St. Joe news, CEO Jorge Luis Gonzalez purchased 1,695 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $53.05 per share, with a total value of $89,919.75. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 60,093 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,187,933.65. This represents a 2.90 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bruce R. Berkowitz sold 343,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.45, for a total transaction of $18,354,730.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,396,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $929,849,552.80. This trade represents a 1.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 600,700 shares of company stock worth $33,085,747. 38.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of St. Joe

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in St. Joe by 1.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,765,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $334,213,000 after acquiring an additional 59,563 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of St. Joe by 0.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,525,941 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $83,467,000 after purchasing an additional 5,144 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of St. Joe by 5.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,396,046 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $81,403,000 after purchasing an additional 75,374 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of St. Joe by 2.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 898,637 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,409,000 after purchasing an additional 23,973 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of St. Joe by 6.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 357,655 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $20,855,000 after purchasing an additional 22,187 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.67% of the company’s stock.

St. Joe Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:JOE opened at $49.96 on Monday. St. Joe has a 52 week low of $49.36 and a 52 week high of $64.69. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $56.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.95. The company has a market capitalization of $2.92 billion, a PE ratio of 42.34 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34.

St. Joe Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 7th. St. Joe’s payout ratio is 47.46%.

About St. Joe

The St. Joe Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development, asset management, and operating company in Northwest Florida. It operates through three segments: Residential, Hospitality, and Commercial. The Residential segment engages in the development of communities into homesites for sale to homebuilders and on a limited basis to retail customers.