CVR Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CVI) Short Interest Up 13.6% in June

CVR Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CVI) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,250,000 shares, an increase of 13.6% from the May 31st total of 6,380,000 shares. Approximately 7.2% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 962,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.5 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CVI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of CVR Energy from $37.00 to $33.75 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. StockNews.com cut shares of CVR Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, June 16th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of CVR Energy from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “sector underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of CVR Energy from $30.00 to $26.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CVR Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $29.94.

Institutional Trading of CVR Energy

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of CVR Energy by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,020,717 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $143,379,000 after buying an additional 85,773 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in CVR Energy by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,842,818 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $55,839,000 after purchasing an additional 103,235 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in CVR Energy by 57.7% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 924,541 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $31,462,000 after purchasing an additional 338,393 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in CVR Energy by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 554,792 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $16,810,000 after purchasing an additional 11,614 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in CVR Energy by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 389,394 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $13,251,000 after purchasing an additional 18,219 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.88% of the company’s stock.

CVR Energy Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of CVI stock traded up $0.37 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $26.58. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 503,113 shares, compared to its average volume of 951,077. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.49 and a quick ratio of 0.91. CVR Energy has a 1-year low of $25.99 and a 1-year high of $39.36. The company has a market capitalization of $2.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 1.54. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $28.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.64.

CVR Energy (NYSE:CVI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The oil and gas company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.13 by ($0.09). CVR Energy had a return on equity of 40.14% and a net margin of 7.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that CVR Energy will post 0.95 EPS for the current year.

CVR Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.52%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. CVR Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.67%.

CVR Energy Company Profile

CVR Energy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the petroleum refining and marketing, and nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing activities in the United States. It operates in two segments, Petroleum and Nitrogen Fertilizer. The Petroleum segment refines and supplies gasoline, crude oil, distillate, diesel fuel, and other refined products.