Basf Se (OTCMKTS:BASFY) Short Interest Up 182.8% in April

Basf Se (OTCMKTS:BASFY) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 52,600 shares, a growth of 182.8% from the March 31st total of 18,600 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 325,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.2 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BASFY. Redburn Atlantic upgraded Basf from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. BNP Paribas reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of Basf in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Basf currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

Basf Price Performance

BASFY stock opened at $13.68 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $49.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 228.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.30. Basf has a 1 year low of $10.66 and a 1 year high of $14.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.58.

Basf (OTCMKTS:BASFY) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 23rd. The basic materials company reported ($0.05) earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of $17.09 billion for the quarter. Basf had a return on equity of 6.25% and a net margin of 0.32%. Research analysts anticipate that Basf will post 0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Basf Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.6594 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. This is a boost from Basf’s previous dividend of $0.64. Basf’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 1,083.33%.

About Basf

BASF SE operates as a chemical company worldwide. It operates through six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care, and Agricultural Solutions. The Chemicals segment provides petrochemicals and intermediates. The Materials segment offers advanced materials and their precursors for applications and systems comprising isocyanates, polyamides, and inorganic basic products, as well as specialties for plastics and plastics processing industries.