Swedbank AB (OTCMKTS:SWDBY) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Key Points

• Short interest fell 20.5% in March to 31,492 shares (from 39,588), with a days-to-cover of 0.3 and roughly 0.0% of the float currently shorted.
• Analyst sentiment is weak—three Hold and three Sell produce an average rating of "Reduce"—with recent notes including Morgan Stanley "underweight", Citigroup "neutral", and Zacks downgrading to "hold".
• Swedbank opened at SEK 37.09, has a market cap of $41.74 billion and a P/E of 12.53, and recently beat quarterly EPS estimates (SEK 0.77 vs. 0.67) while reporting a 15.5% ROE and 30.27% net margin.

Swedbank AB (OTCMKTS:SWDBY - Get Free Report) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 31,492 shares, a decrease of 20.5% from the March 15th total of 39,588 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 90,311 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.3 days. Approximately 0.0% of the company's stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on SWDBY shares. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "underweight" rating on shares of Swedbank in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Swedbank in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Swedbank from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, March 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Reduce".

Swedbank Stock Performance

SWDBY opened at SEK 37.09 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42. Swedbank has a 12-month low of SEK 21.77 and a 12-month high of SEK 40.58. The company's 50 day moving average is SEK 36.72 and its 200 day moving average is SEK 34.45. The company has a market cap of $41.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.53, a PEG ratio of 5.47 and a beta of 0.72.

Swedbank (OTCMKTS:SWDBY - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported SEK 0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of SEK 0.67 by SEK 0.10. Swedbank had a return on equity of 15.50% and a net margin of 30.27%.The firm had revenue of SEK 1.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of SEK 1.79 billion. On average, equities research analysts predict that Swedbank will post 2.34 EPS for the current year.

About Swedbank

Swedbank AB is a major Swedish banking group headquartered in Stockholm that provides a broad range of financial services to retail, corporate and institutional clients. The bank's operations focus on traditional banking functions such as deposit-taking, lending and payment services, as well as wealth management and insurance solutions. Swedbank's franchise is centered on serving households, small and medium-sized enterprises and larger corporate customers, with an emphasis on everyday banking and long-term client relationships.

Products and services offered by Swedbank include savings and current accounts, mortgages and consumer lending, business loans and transaction banking, payment and card services, and digital banking platforms.

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