Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE:DQ) Short Interest Update

Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE:DQ) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,860,000 shares, an increase of 9.3% from the March 15th total of 3,530,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,340,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Daiwa Capital Markets reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of Daqo New Energy in a research note on Friday, March 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.23.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Daqo New Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Daqo New Energy by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,728,399 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $72,575,000 after purchasing an additional 53,860 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Daqo New Energy by 3.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,726,135 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $127,692,000 after purchasing an additional 80,587 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Daqo New Energy by 0.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,147,973 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $88,753,000 after purchasing an additional 19,268 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in shares of Daqo New Energy by 1,305.7% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,981,937 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $92,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,840,945 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Daqo New Energy by 189.4% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,839,118 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $71,008,000 after purchasing an additional 1,203,536 shares during the last quarter. 47.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Daqo New Energy Price Performance

DQ traded down $0.37 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $23.36. The company had a trading volume of 552,948 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,012,070. Daqo New Energy has a 12 month low of $17.30 and a 12 month high of $48.31. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $23.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.13. The company has a market cap of $1.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.22.

Daqo New Energy (NYSE:DQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The semiconductor company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by ($0.20). The business had revenue of $477.13 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $529.40 million. Daqo New Energy had a return on equity of 6.42% and a net margin of 18.24%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Daqo New Energy will post 4.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Daqo New Energy

Daqo New Energy Corp., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells polysilicon to photovoltaic product manufacturers in the People's Republic of China. Its products are used in ingots, wafers, cells, and modules for solar power solutions. The company was formerly known as Mega Stand International Limited and changed its name to Daqo New Energy Corp.