Short Interest in Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO) Increases By 26.4%

Key Points

• Short interest jumped 26.4% in March to 157,293 shares (about 2.2% of shares outstanding) with a days-to-cover of 3.9.
• Earnings miss: Alico reported Q results of ($0.96) EPS vs. ($0.04) expected and revenue $1.89M vs. $3.22M, leaving the company with a deeply negative ROE and net margin.
• Institutional ownership stands at 62.28% (Gate City Capital holds ~1.30M shares), and the company declared a $0.05 quarterly dividend (annualized $0.20, ~0.5% yield) with an ex-dividend date of April 2.

Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 157,293 shares, a growth of 26.4% from the March 15th total of 124,414 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 39,841 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.9 days. Currently, 2.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alico

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Gate City Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Alico by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Gate City Capital Management LLC now owns 1,297,679 shares of the company's stock worth $47,210,000 after acquiring an additional 39,500 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Alico by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 259,666 shares of the company's stock valued at $9,000,000 after buying an additional 4,064 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alico by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 138,611 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,045,000 after buying an additional 4,714 shares during the last quarter. Peapod Lane Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alico by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Peapod Lane Capital LLC now owns 133,701 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,864,000 after buying an additional 983 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Accordant Advisory Group Inc boosted its stake in shares of Alico by 39.4% during the 4th quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 94,411 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,435,000 after buying an additional 26,688 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.28% of the company's stock.

Alico Stock Down 1.3%

ALCO opened at $42.49 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $40.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.64. The company has a market cap of $325.35 million, a PE ratio of -2.29 and a beta of 1.00. Alico has a 1 year low of $27.85 and a 1 year high of $45.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 13.02 and a current ratio of 14.39.

Alico (NASDAQ:ALCO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported ($0.96) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.04) by ($0.92). The business had revenue of $1.89 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 million. Alico had a negative return on equity of 101.66% and a negative net margin of 487.45%. Sell-side analysts expect that Alico will post -0.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Alico Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.05 dividend. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 2nd. Alico's dividend payout ratio is currently -1.08%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ALCO. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d)" rating on shares of Alico in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Alico from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Sunday, March 22nd. Finally, Roth Mkm set a $45.00 target price on shares of Alico and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $45.00.

Alico Company Profile

Alico, Inc is an agribusiness and land management company headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida. The company owns and manages over 110,000 acres of land in southwestern Florida, with operations focused on citrus groves, sugarcane production, forestry and other row crops. Alico leverages its extensive land holdings to support integrated agricultural and environmental stewardship practices.

In its citrus division, Alico cultivates and markets fresh oranges for both the retail and processing markets, while its sugarcane segment supplies raw cane to domestic sugar mills.

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