Farmer Bros. Co. (NASDAQ:FARM) Short Interest Up 36.8% in December

Farmer Bros. Co. (NASDAQ:FARM) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 74,700 shares, an increase of 36.8% from the December 15th total of 54,600 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 85,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.9 days. Approximately 0.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Farmer Bros.

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sanders Morris Harris LLC grew its position in Farmer Bros. by 53.8% in the third quarter. Sanders Morris Harris LLC now owns 154,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $305,000 after acquiring an additional 54,000 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Farmer Bros. by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 367,919 shares of the company’s stock valued at $986,000 after purchasing an additional 17,327 shares during the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Farmer Bros. during the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Farmer Bros. by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 209,288 shares of the company’s stock worth $414,000 after purchasing an additional 11,390 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Farmer Bros. by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 559,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,499,000 after buying an additional 7,600 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.48% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on FARM. Roth Mkm dropped their target price on shares of Farmer Bros. from $6.00 to $4.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Farmer Bros. in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company.

Farmer Bros. Stock Performance

NASDAQ FARM opened at $1.64 on Thursday. Farmer Bros. has a fifty-two week low of $1.60 and a fifty-two week high of $4.04. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $1.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $2.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.58.

Farmer Bros. (NASDAQ:FARM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.24) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.23) by ($0.01). Farmer Bros. had a negative net margin of 2.20% and a negative return on equity of 35.41%. The firm had revenue of $85.07 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.80 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.06) EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Farmer Bros. will post -0.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Farmer Bros.

Farmer Bros. Co engages in the roasting, wholesale, equipment servicing, and distribution of coffee, tea, and other allied products in the United States. The company offers roast and ground coffee; frozen liquid coffee; flavoured and unflavoured iced and hot teas; culinary products, including spices, pancake and biscuit mixes, gravy and sauce mixes, soup bases, dressings, and syrups and sauces, as well as coffee filters, cups, sugar, and creamers; and other beverages comprising cappuccino, cocoa, granitas, and other blender-based beverages and concentrated and ready-to-drink cold brew and iced coffee.