Adecoagro S.A. (NYSE:AGRO) Short Interest Update

Adecoagro S.A. (NYSE:AGRO - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 275,700 shares, a decline of 71.3% from the March 31st total of 961,500 shares. Approximately 0.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 908,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.3 days.

Institutional Trading of Adecoagro

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Adecoagro by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 149,450 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,657,000 after purchasing an additional 1,900 shares during the period. Ping Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Adecoagro by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Ping Capital Management Inc. now owns 105,000 shares of the company's stock valued at $990,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Adecoagro by 26.3% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 13,406 shares of the company's stock valued at $126,000 after purchasing an additional 2,794 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. raised its stake in shares of Adecoagro by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 33,886 shares of the company's stock valued at $320,000 after purchasing an additional 2,970 shares during the period. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Adecoagro by 15.8% during the 4th quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 29,891 shares of the company's stock valued at $282,000 after purchasing an additional 4,089 shares during the period. 45.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Adecoagro Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:AGRO traded down $0.16 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $9.18. 1,051,185 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 838,393. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $10.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $10.56. The company has a current ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Adecoagro has a 12-month low of $8.72 and a 12-month high of $12.08. The stock has a market cap of $918.34 million, a P/E ratio of 6.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.65.

Adecoagro Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 2nd will be paid a $0.175 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd. This is a positive change from Adecoagro's previous semi-annual dividend of $0.17. This represents a dividend yield of 3%. Adecoagro's payout ratio is presently 39.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on AGRO shares. Bank of America cut shares of Adecoagro from a "buy" rating to an "underperform" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $12.00 to $10.80 in a research note on Friday, April 25th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Adecoagro from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Adecoagro from $10.50 to $9.90 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Adecoagro from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and cut their price target for the stock from $13.00 to $10.00 in a report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Adecoagro currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $10.55.

About Adecoagro

Adecoagro SA operates as an agro-industrial company in South America. The company mainly operates through three segments: Farming; Sugar, Ethanol and Energy; and Land Transformation. It engages in farming crops, rice and other agricultural products, dairy operations, and land transformation activities, as well as sugar, ethanol, and energy production activities.