Short Interest in Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE:TNK) Decreases By 24.0%

Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE:TNK - Get Free Report) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 731,900 shares, a drop of 24.0% from the April 30th total of 962,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 509,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.4 days. Currently, 3.1% of the company's stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Teekay Tankers from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Teekay Tankers in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Teekay Tankers currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $50.67.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Teekay Tankers

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TNK. Barclays PLC raised its stake in Teekay Tankers by 273.7% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 31,472 shares of the shipping company's stock valued at $1,833,000 after purchasing an additional 23,051 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in Teekay Tankers during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Choreo LLC bought a new position in Teekay Tankers during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $294,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Teekay Tankers by 161.6% in the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 16,982 shares of the shipping company's stock valued at $676,000 after acquiring an additional 10,490 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Teekay Tankers in the fourth quarter worth approximately $7,248,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.67% of the company's stock.

Teekay Tankers Stock Performance

Shares of Teekay Tankers stock traded down $0.06 during trading on Thursday, reaching $45.39. The company had a trading volume of 118,532 shares, compared to its average volume of 399,861. The company has a market cap of $1.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.01 and a beta of -0.10. Teekay Tankers has a fifty-two week low of $33.35 and a fifty-two week high of $72.30. The firm's fifty day moving average is $41.69 and its 200-day moving average is $40.81.

Teekay Tankers (NYSE:TNK - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The shipping company reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.53 by ($0.32). Teekay Tankers had a net margin of 34.55% and a return on equity of 20.67%. The firm had revenue of $115.64 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $146.31 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $4.23 earnings per share. Teekay Tankers's revenue was down 37.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Teekay Tankers will post 7.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Teekay Tankers Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a -- dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a $1.00 dividend. This represents a yield of 2.3%. This is an increase from Teekay Tankers's previous -- dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 19th. Teekay Tankers's dividend payout ratio is presently 10.72%.

About Teekay Tankers

Teekay Tankers Ltd. provides crude oil and other marine transportation services to oil industries in Bermuda and internationally. The company offers voyage and time charter services; offshore ship-to-ship transfer services of commodities primarily crude oil and refined oil products; and tanker commercial and technical management services.