Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in The ODP Co. (NASDAQ:ODP)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of The ODP Co. (NASDAQ:ODP) by 97.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 22,231 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,953 shares during the period. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in ODP were worth $1,252,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ODP. Gladius Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of ODP by 94.6% in the 3rd quarter. Gladius Capital Management LP now owns 722 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. bought a new stake in shares of ODP in the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of ODP in the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of ODP in the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its holdings in shares of ODP by 875.4% in the 1st quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,785 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 1,602 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.56% of the company’s stock.

ODP Stock Performance

ODP stock traded up $0.34 during trading on Monday, reaching $50.77. The company had a trading volume of 16,513 shares, compared to its average volume of 303,918. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $50.08. The company has a market cap of $1.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.99. The ODP Co. has a twelve month low of $39.36 and a twelve month high of $58.98.

ODP (NASDAQ:ODP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The specialty retailer reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.16. ODP had a net margin of 1.77% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.85 EPS. ODP’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The ODP Co. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

ODP declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the specialty retailer to repurchase up to 48.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ODP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. TheStreet cut shares of ODP from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of ODP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ODP news, CFO Diego Anthony Scaglione sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total transaction of $1,375,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 96,104 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,285,720. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 3.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

ODP Company Profile

The ODP Corporation provides business services and supplies, products, and digital workplace technology solutions for small, medium, and enterprise businesses in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The company operates through four divisions: ODP Business Solutions, Office Depot, Veyer, and Varis.