Short Interest in GeoPark Limited (NYSE:GPRK) Increases By 33.5%

GeoPark Limited (NYSE:GPRK) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,010,000 shares, an increase of 33.5% from the December 15th total of 756,700 shares. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 520,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.

GeoPark Stock Performance

Shares of GeoPark stock traded down $0.65 during trading on Thursday, reaching $10.75. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 907,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 888,667. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $9.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.18. GeoPark has a fifty-two week low of $7.24 and a fifty-two week high of $11.72. The firm has a market cap of $550.05 million, a PE ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.53.

GeoPark (NYSE:GPRK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The oil and gas company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by ($0.11). GeoPark had a net margin of 14.97% and a return on equity of 57.93%. The company had revenue of $159.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.99 million. On average, analysts forecast that GeoPark will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

GeoPark Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were given a dividend of $0.147 per share. This represents a $0.59 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.47%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. GeoPark’s payout ratio is 29.44%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GPRK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on GeoPark from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised GeoPark from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday, January 5th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GeoPark

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC acquired a new position in GeoPark during the second quarter worth $244,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of GeoPark by 1.9% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,246,617 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $35,550,000 after purchasing an additional 61,454 shares during the last quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in GeoPark during the second quarter worth about $34,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp purchased a new position in GeoPark during the second quarter worth approximately $2,929,000. Finally, Aristides Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of GeoPark during the 2nd quarter worth about $286,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.21% of the company’s stock.

About GeoPark

GeoPark Limited operates as an oil and natural gas exploration and production company primarily in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and other Latin American countries. It engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas reserves. The company was formerly known as GeoPark Holdings Limited and changed its name to GeoPark Limited in July 2013.