Short Interest in The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE) Rises By 16.7%

The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 667,300 shares, a growth of 16.7% from the October 15th total of 571,600 shares. Approximately 1.2% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 187,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.6 days.

St. Joe Price Performance

NYSE:JOE opened at $49.96 on Monday. St. Joe has a 52 week low of $49.36 and a 52 week high of $64.69. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.34 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $56.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34.

St. Joe Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.12%. St. Joe’s payout ratio is 47.46%.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Bruce R. Berkowitz sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.12, for a total transaction of $584,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,785,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $944,740,474.88. This trade represents a 0.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jorge Luis Gonzalez purchased 1,695 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $53.05 per share, for a total transaction of $89,919.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 60,093 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,187,933.65. This trade represents a 2.90 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 600,700 shares of company stock valued at $33,085,747 over the last ninety days. 38.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On St. Joe

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of JOE. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its stake in St. Joe by 7.3% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 6,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $404,000 after buying an additional 475 shares in the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its stake in St. Joe by 43.8% during the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 14,148 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $820,000 after buying an additional 4,310 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of St. Joe by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,765,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $334,213,000 after purchasing an additional 59,563 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in shares of St. Joe by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 26,746 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,551,000 after purchasing an additional 1,022 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of St. Joe in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $558,000. 86.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About St. Joe

The St. Joe Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development, asset management, and operating company in Northwest Florida. It operates through three segments: Residential, Hospitality, and Commercial. The Residential segment engages in the development of communities into homesites for sale to homebuilders and on a limited basis to retail customers.