Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Co. (NYSE:BAH) Short Interest Up 43.1% in February

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Co. (NYSE:BAH) saw a significant increase in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,080,000 shares, an increase of 43.1% from the January 31st total of 4,250,000 shares. Approximately 4.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,980,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BAH has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Booz Allen Hamilton from $210.00 to $158.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. William Blair cut shares of Booz Allen Hamilton from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Barclays upgraded shares of Booz Allen Hamilton from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Booz Allen Hamilton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price target for the company from $180.00 to $190.00 in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Booz Allen Hamilton from $185.00 to $155.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $158.27.

Booz Allen Hamilton Trading Up 2.8 %

NYSE BAH traded up $2.87 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $105.59. 6,752,577 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,437,014. Booz Allen Hamilton has a 1-year low of $101.82 and a 1-year high of $190.59. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $126.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $146.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.37 billion, a PE ratio of 15.74, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 1.57 and a current ratio of 1.57.

Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE:BAH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The business services provider reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.07. Booz Allen Hamilton had a net margin of 7.39% and a return on equity of 68.97%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Booz Allen Hamilton will post 6.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booz Allen Hamilton Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. This is an increase from Booz Allen Hamilton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. Booz Allen Hamilton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.79%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Booz Allen Hamilton

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. GW&K Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Booz Allen Hamilton by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 461,517 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $59,397,000 after purchasing an additional 3,435 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP purchased a new position in shares of Booz Allen Hamilton in the 4th quarter valued at $933,000. Cumberland Partners Ltd raised its stake in shares of Booz Allen Hamilton by 92.2% in the 4th quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd now owns 99,330 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $12,784,000 after acquiring an additional 47,655 shares during the period. Bridges Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Booz Allen Hamilton by 19.2% in the 4th quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 117,661 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $15,143,000 after acquiring an additional 18,930 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Booz Allen Hamilton by 51.7% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 951,605 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $122,472,000 after acquiring an additional 324,159 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.82% of the company’s stock.

About Booz Allen Hamilton

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation provides management and technology consulting, analytics, engineering, digital solutions, mission operations, and cyber services to governments, corporations, and not-for-profit organizations in the United States and internationally. It focuses on artificial intelligence services comprising of machine learning, predictive modeling, automation and decision analytics, and quantum computing.