AGCO Co. (NYSE:AGCO) Short Interest Up 8.5% in December

AGCO Co. (NYSE:AGCO) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,990,000 shares, a growth of 8.5% from the November 30th total of 4,600,000 shares. Currently, 8.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 949,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.3 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on AGCO. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on AGCO from $112.00 to $99.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AGCO from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on AGCO in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $101.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial raised their price target on AGCO from $110.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of AGCO from $131.00 to $111.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $108.10.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AGCO

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of AGCO by 103.5% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,571,453 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $153,814,000 after buying an additional 799,429 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in AGCO by 53.0% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,747,954 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $171,090,000 after buying an additional 605,509 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in AGCO by 28.0% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,791,202 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $175,323,000 after buying an additional 391,591 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of AGCO by 17.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,259,699 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $221,187,000 after acquiring an additional 335,092 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its stake in AGCO by 386.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 249,209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $24,389,000 after purchasing an additional 198,014 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.80% of the company’s stock.

AGCO Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE AGCO traded up $0.38 on Wednesday, hitting $93.48. The stock had a trading volume of 473,742 shares, compared to its average volume of 817,883. AGCO has a 52-week low of $84.35 and a 52-week high of $130.26. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $96.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $95.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market cap of $6.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.24.

AGCO (NYSE:AGCO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.40). AGCO had a return on equity of 15.79% and a net margin of 1.35%. The company had revenue of $2.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.97 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that AGCO will post 7.36 earnings per share for the current year.

AGCO Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. AGCO’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.33%.

AGCO Company Profile

AGCO Corporation manufactures and distributes agricultural equipment and related replacement parts worldwide. It offers horsepower tractors for row crop production, soil cultivation, planting, land leveling, seeding, and commercial hay operations; utility tractors for small- and medium-sized farms, as well as for dairy, livestock, orchards, and vineyards; and compact tractors for small farms, specialty agricultural industries, landscaping, equestrian, and residential uses.