Torm Plc (NASDAQ:TRMD) Short Interest Update

Torm Plc (NASDAQ:TRMD) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 526,628 shares, a decline of 59.5% from the March 15th total of 1,300,264 shares. Currently, 0.5% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 860,330 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.6 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on TRMD shares. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of Torm in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen raised Torm from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Torm presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.00.

Institutional Trading of Torm

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Torm during the fourth quarter valued at $24,830,000. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP bought a new position in Torm during the second quarter valued at $7,523,000. Marnell Management LLC bought a new position in Torm during the fourth quarter valued at $4,815,000. Fearnley Asset Management AS bought a new position in Torm during the fourth quarter valued at $4,048,000. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Torm by 613.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 206,508 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,258,000 after purchasing an additional 177,551 shares during the period. 73.89% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Torm Stock Down 2.8%

TRMD stock traded down $0.85 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $29.50. 616,824 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 786,225. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $27.35 and its 200 day moving average is $23.52. Torm has a twelve month low of $14.92 and a twelve month high of $31.76. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.69 and a beta of 0.02.

Torm (NASDAQ:TRMD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.04. Torm had a return on equity of 13.26% and a net margin of 21.29%.The business had revenue of $352.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $236.21 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Torm will post 6.27 EPS for the current year.

Torm Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 12th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.5%. This is a boost from Torm’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 12th. Torm’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.