Forestar Group Inc. (NYSE:FOR) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Forestar Group Inc. (NYSE:FOR) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 344,200 shares, a drop of 11.5% from the October 15th total of 389,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 135,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days. Currently, 1.8% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Forestar Group news, Director G.F. (Rick) Ringler III sold 2,000 shares of Forestar Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.58, for a total value of $65,160.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,951 shares in the company, valued at $193,883.58. The trade was a 25.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Forestar Group

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new position in shares of Forestar Group during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $393,000. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Forestar Group by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 67,491 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $2,712,000 after purchasing an additional 5,731 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Forestar Group by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,805,957 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $112,771,000 after buying an additional 28,379 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Forestar Group by 11.4% in the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 98,337 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $3,952,000 after purchasing an additional 10,031 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Forestar Group by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,997 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $442,000 after buying an additional 781 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 35.50% of the company’s stock.

Forestar Group Stock Performance

Shares of FOR traded down $0.10 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $29.30. 75,109 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 189,297. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.33 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a quick ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $31.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.80. Forestar Group has a 12-month low of $27.49 and a 12-month high of $40.92.

Forestar Group (NYSE:FOR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.31 by $0.29. Forestar Group had a return on equity of 13.59% and a net margin of 13.48%. The firm had revenue of $551.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $503.76 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. Forestar Group’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Forestar Group will post 3.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Forestar Group from $37.50 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 25th.

About Forestar Group

Forestar Group Inc operates as a residential lot development company in the United States. The company acquires land and develops infrastructure for single-family residential communities. It sells its residential single-family finished lots to local, regional, and national homebuilders. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Arlington, Texas.