Liberty Broadband Co. (NASDAQ:LBRDK) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Liberty Broadband Co. (NASDAQ:LBRDK) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 4,120,000 shares, an increase of 46.6% from the February 13th total of 2,810,000 shares. Currently, 3.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 901,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liberty Broadband

In other news, CEO Gregory B. Maffei sold 125,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.74, for a total value of $9,967,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,435,256 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $114,447,313.44. The trade was a 8.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 10.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liberty Broadband

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Liberty Broadband by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 27,186 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,101,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Liberty Broadband by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 27,909 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,086,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Liberty Broadband by 61.1% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 406 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Northeast Financial Consultants Inc lifted its position in Liberty Broadband by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Northeast Financial Consultants Inc now owns 2,989 shares of the company’s stock valued at $223,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Liberty Broadband by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 3,757 shares of the company’s stock worth $281,000 after buying an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Liberty Broadband in a report on Thursday. They set a “sell” rating on the stock.

Liberty Broadband Price Performance

LBRDK stock traded up $2.29 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $81.38. 548,227 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 869,394. Liberty Broadband has a 52-week low of $46.46 and a 52-week high of $101.50. The company has a market capitalization of $11.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.99 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 2.07. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $79.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $78.63.

Liberty Broadband (NASDAQ:LBRDK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by ($1.63). Liberty Broadband had a return on equity of 8.45% and a net margin of 78.07%. The firm had revenue of $253.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $252.50 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that Liberty Broadband will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Liberty Broadband Company Profile

Liberty Broadband Corporation engages in the communications businesses. The company's GCI Holdings segment provides data, wireless, video, voice, and managed services to residential customers, businesses, governmental entities, educational, and medical institutions in Alaska under the GCI brand.