YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) Short Interest Up 25.6% in March

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,370,000 shares, an increase of 25.6% from the March 15th total of 3,480,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,080,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.1 days. Currently, 1.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On YPF Sociedad Anónima

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 335.6% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,091,392 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $46,395,000 after purchasing an additional 840,842 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,927,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,244,000. Fourth Sail Capital LP bought a new position in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima in the fourth quarter worth about $5,667,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in YPF Sociedad Anónima by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,427 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $103,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 10.08% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on YPF shares. HSBC raised YPF Sociedad Anónima from a "reduce" rating to a "hold" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $21.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Monday, April 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $59.50 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded YPF Sociedad Anónima to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $40.73.

YPF Sociedad Anónima Stock Performance

Shares of YPF stock traded down $0.27 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $31.97. 618,625 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,137,347. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a 12 month low of $16.18 and a 12 month high of $47.43. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $33.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.58 billion, a PE ratio of 16.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.88.

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 7th. The oil and gas exploration company reported ($0.74) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($1.25). YPF Sociedad Anónima had a return on equity of 32.76% and a net margin of 4.15%. The company had revenue of $4.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.86 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that YPF Sociedad Anónima will post 7.25 EPS for the current year.

About YPF Sociedad Anónima

YPF Sociedad Anónima, an energy company, engages in the oil and gas upstream and downstream activities in Argentina. Its upstream operations include the exploration, exploitation, and production of crude oil, and natural gas. The company's downstream operations include petrochemical production and crude oil refining; transportation and distribution refined and petrochemical products; commercialization of crude oil, petrochemical products, and specialties.