Short Interest in Costamare Inc. (NYSE:CMRE) Drops By 7.8%

Costamare Inc. (NYSE:CMRE) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,380,000 shares, a drop of 7.8% from the September 30th total of 2,580,000 shares. Approximately 5.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 387,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.1 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CMRE. nVerses Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Costamare by 1,700.0% in the 3rd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 1,800 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 1,700 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its position in Costamare by 53.6% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,302 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $71,000 after buying an additional 1,502 shares during the last quarter. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Costamare during the second quarter worth about $80,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Costamare by 2,540.4% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 7,393 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $121,000 after acquiring an additional 7,113 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Costamare in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $185,000. 58.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CMRE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Costamare from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Costamare from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Costamare from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th.

Costamare Trading Up 3.1 %

Shares of CMRE traded up $0.40 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $13.62. The company had a trading volume of 343,438 shares, compared to its average volume of 498,537. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $14.30. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market cap of $1.60 billion, a PE ratio of 5.28 and a beta of 1.37. Costamare has a 1-year low of $8.54 and a 1-year high of $17.58.

Costamare (NYSE:CMRE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The shipping company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $515.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $380.41 million. Costamare had a net margin of 19.63% and a return on equity of 13.63%. Research analysts forecast that Costamare will post 3.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Costamare Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Investors of record on Monday, October 21st will be issued a $0.115 dividend. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 21st. Costamare’s dividend payout ratio is presently 17.83%.

About Costamare