Veritiv Co. (NYSE:VRTV) Short Interest Down 37.7% in August

Veritiv Co. (NYSE:VRTV) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 460,300 shares, a decline of 37.7% from the August 15th total of 738,700 shares. Currently, 3.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 146,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.1 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VRTV. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. grew its position in Veritiv by 142.0% during the first quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 2,330 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $312,000 after acquiring an additional 1,367 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its position in Veritiv by 168.3% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 5,923 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $791,000 after acquiring an additional 3,715 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its position in Veritiv by 1,390.0% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 447 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 417 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in shares of Veritiv by 6.2% during the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,994 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $563,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Veritiv by 59.1% during the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 7,612 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,017,000 after purchasing an additional 2,828 shares during the period. 99.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VRTV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Veritiv from $159.00 to $158.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Veritiv in a research report on Sunday, September 10th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock.

Veritiv Stock Up 0.3 %

VRTV stock opened at $168.89 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.20, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company’s 50 day moving average is $154.18 and its 200 day moving average is $132.44. The stock has a market cap of $2.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 2.17. Veritiv has a 1-year low of $94.50 and a 1-year high of $169.85.

Veritiv (NYSE:VRTV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 8th. The basic materials company reported $5.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.02 by $0.13. Veritiv had a net margin of 4.78% and a return on equity of 37.30%. The company had revenue of $1.46 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $6.12 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Veritiv will post 20.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veritiv Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 17th were given a dividend of $0.63 per share. This represents a $2.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 16th. Veritiv’s payout ratio is currently 11.35%.

About Veritiv

Veritiv Corporation operates as a business-to-business provider of value-added packaging products and services, facility solutions, and print based products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through Packaging, Facility Solutions, and Print segments. The Packaging segment provides packaging product materials within flexible, corrugated and fiber, ancillary packaging, rigid, and equipment categories.