Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HHH) Short Interest Up 22.2% in March

Key Points

• Short interest up 22.2% — short interest climbed to 2,944,737 shares as of March 31 (9.5% of shares sold short) with a days-to-cover of 5.6 based on average daily volume.
• Howard Hughes missed its latest quarter, reporting $0.10 EPS versus a $0.31 estimate and revenue of $624.45 million, down 36.5% year-over-year.
• Insider activity: General Counsel Joseph Valane bought 1,260 shares at $64.45 on March 13, raising his holdings to 29,209 shares, and corporate insiders own 48% of the company.

Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HHH - Get Free Report) saw a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 2,944,737 shares, an increase of 22.2% from the March 15th total of 2,408,784 shares. Currently, 9.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 529,832 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Howard Hughes news, General Counsel Joseph Valane bought 1,260 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 13th. The shares were bought at an average price of $64.45 per share, for a total transaction of $81,207.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the general counsel owned 29,209 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,882,520.05. This trade represents a 4.51% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 48.00% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Howard Hughes

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Howard Hughes by 1,183.2% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 25,716 shares of the company's stock worth $2,113,000 after buying an additional 23,712 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in Howard Hughes in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $511,000. Northern Right Capital Management L.P. boosted its stake in Howard Hughes by 15.7% in the third quarter. Northern Right Capital Management L.P. now owns 302,450 shares of the company's stock valued at $24,852,000 after acquiring an additional 41,095 shares during the last quarter. TrueMark Investments LLC bought a new position in Howard Hughes in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,318,000. Finally, Annex Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Howard Hughes during the 3rd quarter worth $1,224,000. 93.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Howard Hughes from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Howard Hughes presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $83.33.

Howard Hughes Trading Down 0.5%

NYSE:HHH traded down $0.34 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $64.71. 328,261 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 450,209. The company has a market capitalization of $3.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.67 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73. The company's 50 day moving average is $69.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $78.00. Howard Hughes has a twelve month low of $61.01 and a twelve month high of $91.07.

Howard Hughes (NYSE:HHH - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.21). Howard Hughes had a net margin of 8.40% and a return on equity of 5.54%. The firm had revenue of $624.45 million during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.25 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 36.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Howard Hughes will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Howard Hughes Company Profile

Howard Hughes Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development company in the United States. It operates in four segments: Operating Assets; Master Planned Communities (MPCs); Seaport; and Strategic Developments. The Operating Assets segment consists of developed or acquired retail, office, and multi-family properties along with other retail investments. Its MPCs segment develops, sells, and leases residential and commercial land designated for long-term community development projects in and around Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston, Texas; and Phoenix, Arizona.

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