The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE) saw a significant decrease in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,030,000 shares, a decrease of 8.0% from the August 15th total of 1,120,000 shares. Currently, 1.8% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 216,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.8 days.

Insider Transactions at St. Joe

In other news, Director Bruce R. Berkowitz sold 30,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.15, for a total value of $1,889,535.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 19,745,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,207,461,234.65. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Bruce R. Berkowitz sold 30,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.15, for a total value of $1,889,535.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,745,891 shares in the company, valued at $1,207,461,234.65. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Bruce R. Berkowitz sold 118,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.82, for a total value of $7,562,670.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 20,468,291 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,306,286,331.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 711,300 shares of company stock valued at $44,820,479. 41.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On St. Joe

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of JOE. Money Concepts Capital Corp purchased a new stake in shares of St. Joe during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. CWM LLC raised its position in St. Joe by 243.9% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 564 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its position in St. Joe by 238.4% during the second quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 741 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 522 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in St. Joe by 93.8% during the first quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 909 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 440 shares during the period. Finally, First Manhattan CO. LLC. acquired a new position in St. Joe during the first quarter valued at $42,000. 88.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on St. Joe in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company.

St. Joe Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE JOE traded down $0.31 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $57.29. 12,023 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 182,430. St. Joe has a 1 year low of $31.11 and a 1 year high of $65.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.18 and a beta of 1.31. The business has a 50 day moving average of $59.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $48.79.

St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter. St. Joe had a return on equity of 13.06% and a net margin of 26.73%. The business had revenue of $128.10 million during the quarter.

St. Joe Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 11th were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.84%. This is an increase from St. Joe’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 10th. St. Joe’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.65%.

About St. Joe

The St. Joe Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development, asset management, and operating company in Northwest Florida. It operates through three segments: Residential, Hospitality, and Commercial. The Residential segment plans and develops residential communities of various sizes for homebuilders or retail consumers.