iHeartMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:IHRT) Short Interest Up 5.0% in January

iHeartMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:IHRT) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,450,000 shares, a growth of 5.0% from the January 15th total of 6,140,000 shares. Approximately 5.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 968,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.7 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On iHeartMedia

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IHRT. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in iHeartMedia by 25.9% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,830,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,585,000 after acquiring an additional 789,170 shares during the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC raised its position in iHeartMedia by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 3,000,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,940,000 after acquiring an additional 500,000 shares during the last quarter. Helix Partners Management LP acquired a new position in iHeartMedia during the fourth quarter worth about $911,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in iHeartMedia during the fourth quarter worth about $870,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of iHeartMedia by 21.2% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,499,409 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,949,000 after buying an additional 436,656 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.89% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IHRT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of iHeartMedia from $3.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Barrington Research upgraded shares of iHeartMedia to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of iHeartMedia from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $1.00 to $3.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th.

iHeartMedia Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of IHRT opened at $2.26 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $332.38 million, a P/E ratio of -0.33 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a 50-day moving average of $2.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1.98. iHeartMedia has a 12-month low of $0.81 and a 12-month high of $3.04.

iHeartMedia Company Profile

iHeartMedia, Inc operates as an audio media company in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Multiplatform Group, Digital Audio Group, and Audio & Media Services Group. The Multiplatform Group segment offers broadcast radio stations, sponsorship and events, and live and virtual events; and operates Premiere Networks, a national radio network that produces, distributes, or represents syndicated radio programs and services to radio station affiliates.