EVERTEC, Inc. (NYSE:EVTC) Short Interest Up 8.3% in July

EVERTEC, Inc. (NYSE:EVTC) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,090,000 shares, a growth of 8.3% from the June 30th total of 1,930,000 shares. Currently, 3.3% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 489,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.3 days.

EVERTEC Stock Performance

EVTC traded up $0.73 during trading on Thursday, reaching $35.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 70,558 shares, compared to its average volume of 398,528. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a current ratio of 1.59. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $33.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.96. EVERTEC has a 52-week low of $28.76 and a 52-week high of $42.21. The company has a market capitalization of $2.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.13.

EVERTEC (NYSE:EVTC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.09. EVERTEC had a net margin of 8.87% and a return on equity of 29.86%. The company had revenue of $205.32 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $200.75 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that EVERTEC will post 2.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EVERTEC Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th will be issued a $0.05 dividend. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 29th. EVERTEC’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.20%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of EVERTEC by 29.2% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 217,123 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,770,000 after acquiring an additional 49,115 shares during the last quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management increased its position in EVERTEC by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management now owns 14,245 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $583,000 after purchasing an additional 744 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in EVERTEC in the 4th quarter valued at about $19,626,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in EVERTEC in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,347,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of EVERTEC by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 709,451 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,045,000 after buying an additional 21,304 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on EVTC shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on EVERTEC from $47.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of EVERTEC from $41.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.67.

EVERTEC Company Profile

EVERTEC, Inc engages in transaction processing business and financial technology in Latin America and the Caribbean. The company operates through four segments: Payment Services – Puerto Rico & Caribbean; Latin America Payments and Solutions; Merchant Acquiring; and Business Solutions. It provides merchant acquiring services, which enable point of sales and e-commerce merchants to accept and process electronic methods of payment, such as debit, credit, prepaid, and electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards.