Grifols, S.A. (NASDAQ:GRFS) Short Interest Update

Key Points

• Short interest fell 25% in March to 5,261,576 shares (about 0.8% of the float), leaving a short-interest ratio of 6.5 days based on average daily volume.
• Several institutions boosted holdings in the company, notably JPMorgan Chase increasing its stake by 31.8% to 2.49 million shares and Envestnet raising its position by 80.2% to 515,853 shares.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed with recent cuts and upgrades (Weiss to Sell, Zacks to Hold, Wall Street Zen to Buy), MarketBeat’s consensus is an average rating of "Reduce" with a $10 target, while shares trade around $8.69 (market cap ~$5.91B, P/E ~45.7).

Grifols, S.A. (NASDAQ:GRFS - Get Free Report) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 5,261,576 shares, a decrease of 25.0% from the March 15th total of 7,018,881 shares. Currently, 0.8% of the company's stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 812,133 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.5 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Grifols

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Grifols by 31.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,488,294 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $24,783,000 after acquiring an additional 600,118 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in Grifols by 5.6% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 2,589,406 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $25,790,000 after acquiring an additional 136,678 shares during the period. AdvisorShares Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Grifols during the third quarter worth about $1,012,000. Integrated Quantitative Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Grifols during the third quarter worth about $1,361,000. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Grifols by 80.2% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 515,853 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $5,138,000 after acquiring an additional 229,661 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on GRFS shares. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Grifols from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Grifols from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Grifols from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Grifols presently has an average rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $10.00.

Grifols Stock Up 2.2%

Shares of Grifols stock traded up $0.19 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $8.69. The company had a trading volume of 377,852 shares, compared to its average volume of 644,404. The company has a market cap of $5.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 0.70. The firm's fifty day moving average is $8.55 and its 200-day moving average is $8.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 2.51. Grifols has a fifty-two week low of $6.86 and a fifty-two week high of $11.14.

Grifols (NASDAQ:GRFS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Saturday, February 14th. The biotechnology company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $2.32 billion for the quarter. Grifols had a net margin of 6.65% and a return on equity of 6.23%. On average, analysts anticipate that Grifols will post 0.81 EPS for the current year.

Grifols Company Profile

Grifols, Inc NASDAQ: GRFS is a global healthcare company specializing in the development, manufacture and marketing of plasma-derived medicines, diagnostic systems and hospital supplies. With a core focus on immunotherapy and transfusion medicine, the company harnesses human plasma proteins to create therapies that treat a wide range of bleeding disorders, immunodeficiencies and neurological conditions. Grifols also supplies reagents and diagnostic instruments for transfusion centers and clinical laboratories, alongside intravenous solutions and medical devices for hospital use.

The company operates three main business units.

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