Costamare Inc. (NYSE:CMRE) Short Interest Down 14.6% in January

Costamare Inc. (NYSE:CMRE) saw a significant decrease in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,700,000 shares, a decrease of 14.6% from the December 31st total of 1,990,000 shares. Approximately 3.9% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 293,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.8 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Costamare

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CMRE. Sei Investments Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Costamare during the second quarter worth $674,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Costamare by 69.8% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 77,622 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $1,275,000 after acquiring an additional 31,896 shares during the period. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in shares of Costamare by 5.2% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 55,067 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $905,000 after acquiring an additional 2,703 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Costamare by 39.0% in the second quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 16,188 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $266,000 after acquiring an additional 4,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Costamare during the second quarter worth about $185,000. 58.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on CMRE shares. StockNews.com downgraded Costamare from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $13.00 price target on shares of Costamare in a research note on Friday, November 1st.

Costamare Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of Costamare stock traded down $0.17 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $11.64. 167,204 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 332,571. The firm has a market cap of $1.37 billion, a PE ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 1.33. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $12.75 and its 200 day moving average is $13.70. Costamare has a 1 year low of $10.14 and a 1 year high of $17.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 1.65.

Costamare (NYSE:CMRE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 1st. The shipping company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $544.64 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $434.13 million. Costamare had a return on equity of 14.28% and a net margin of 19.11%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Costamare will post 2.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Costamare Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be paid a $0.115 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 21st. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.95%. Costamare’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.28%.

About Costamare