Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA) Shares Shorted: Short Interest Up 78.3% in October

Key Points

• Corteva’s short interest surged 78.3% in October to 38.6 million shares, representing approximately 5.8% of shares outstanding. The stock had a short-interest ratio of 0.7 days based on average trading volume.
• Institutional ownership remains high at 81.54%, with major investors including BlackRock, Wellington Management and Royal Bank of Canada adding or initiating sizable positions.
• Corteva reduced its quarterly dividend from $0.18 to $0.05 per share, while analyst sentiment remained generally positive: 16 analysts rated the stock Buy, six Hold and one Sell, producing a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating.

Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totaling 38,568,625 shares, an increase of 78.3% from the September 30th total of 21,627,627 shares. Approximately 5.8% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 53,342,342 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.7 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Corteva in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $4,560,180,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Corteva by 941.7% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,612,704 shares of the company's stock worth $644,720,000 after buying an additional 6,881,875 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in shares of Corteva by 202.1% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 7,458,624 shares of the company's stock worth $624,362,000 after acquiring an additional 4,989,371 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new stake in Corteva in the second quarter valued at approximately $544,246,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Corteva in the 2nd quarter valued at $484,927,000. 81.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Corteva Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of CTVA stock traded up $0.13 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $11.60. 30,775,104 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 33,863,204. Corteva has a fifty-two week low of $11.24 and a fifty-two week high of $90.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.52. The firm has a market cap of $7.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.53.

Corteva (NYSE:CTVA - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.24 by $0.06. Corteva had a net margin of 5.66% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The company had revenue of $6.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.20 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Corteva will post 1.04 EPS for the current year.

Corteva Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 1st will be given a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 1st. This is a drop from Corteva's previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. Corteva's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.68%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CTVA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $20.00 target price on shares of Corteva in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Corteva from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Corteva from $86.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Mizuho upped their target price on Corteva from $96.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Argus reissued a "buy" rating and set a $91.00 price target on shares of Corteva in a report on Friday, September 18th. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Corteva currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $60.59.

About Corteva

Corteva, Inc NYSE: CTVA is an agriculture company that develops and supplies products and services designed to help farmers improve crop productivity, protect yields and manage agricultural challenges. Its business is organized primarily around seed and crop protection products.

The company's seed portfolio includes branded corn, soybean, cotton, sunflower, canola and other crop varieties, supported by plant genetics and biotechnology. Its crop protection business offers herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and seed-applied treatments, along with biological and digital agriculture solutions intended to support crop health and farm-management decisions.

Corteva was formed through the separation of the agriculture division of DowDuPont and became an independent public company in 2019.

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