National Vision Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EYE) Short Interest Up 13.4% in December

National Vision Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EYE) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,720,000 shares, a growth of 13.4% from the December 15th total of 3,280,000 shares. Approximately 4.8% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,350,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EYE. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of National Vision by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 28,676 shares of the company’s stock valued at $298,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its stake in National Vision by 6.3% during the third quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 21,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $234,000 after buying an additional 1,273 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in National Vision by 64.6% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,291 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 1,292 shares in the last quarter. Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in National Vision by 15.3% in the 3rd quarter. Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC now owns 15,036 shares of the company’s stock worth $164,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in National Vision by 13.4% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 20,191 shares of the company’s stock worth $264,000 after acquiring an additional 2,384 shares during the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on National Vision from $13.00 to $12.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th.

National Vision Stock Up 0.5 %

EYE opened at $10.80 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $850.50 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -54.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.57. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $11.21 and its 200 day moving average is $11.23. National Vision has a fifty-two week low of $9.56 and a fifty-two week high of $24.11.

National Vision (NASDAQ:EYE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.06. National Vision had a positive return on equity of 3.52% and a negative net margin of 0.81%. The business had revenue of $451.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $451.13 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.09 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that National Vision will post 0.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About National Vision

National Vision Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates as an optical retailer in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Owned & Host and Legacy. It offers eyeglasses and contact lenses, and optical accessory products; provides eye exams through its America’s Best, Eyeglass World, Vista Optical, Fred Meyer, and Vista Optical military, as well as Vision Center branded stores; and offers health maintenance organization and optometric services.