Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (NYSE:HMC) Short Interest Up 8.3% in January

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (NYSE:HMC) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,460,000 shares, an increase of 8.3% from the January 15th total of 4,120,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,590,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days. Approximately 0.3% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Honda Motor

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of HMC. CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Honda Motor by 15.1% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,839 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,000 after acquiring an additional 634 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its position in shares of Honda Motor by 19.6% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 156,756 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,974,000 after buying an additional 25,718 shares during the period. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Honda Motor by 13.6% in the third quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,148 shares of the company’s stock worth $481,000 after buying an additional 1,811 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of Honda Motor by 139.6% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 8,329 shares of the company’s stock worth $269,000 after buying an additional 4,853 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in shares of Honda Motor by 5.5% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 348,112 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,046,000 after buying an additional 18,134 shares during the period. 5.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Honda Motor Stock Performance

HMC traded down $1.00 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $27.69. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 284,586 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,271,937. Honda Motor has a fifty-two week low of $23.41 and a fifty-two week high of $37.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.22 billion, a PE ratio of 6.83 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Honda Motor (NYSE:HMC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.37. Honda Motor had a return on equity of 7.53% and a net margin of 4.53%. The company had revenue of $36.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $35.31 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Honda Motor will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HMC has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded Honda Motor from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. UBS Group upgraded Honda Motor from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th.

Honda Motor Company Profile

Honda Motor Co, Ltd. develops, manufactures, and distributes motorcycles, automobiles, power, and other products in Japan, North America, Europe, Asia, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Motorcycle Business, Automobile Business, Financial Services Business, and Power Product and Other Businesses.