CTO Realty Growth, Inc. (NYSE:CTO) Short Interest Update

CTO Realty Growth, Inc. (NYSE:CTO) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,220,000 shares, an increase of 56.1% from the October 15th total of 781,400 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 508,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.4 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on CTO shares. Raymond James raised CTO Realty Growth from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $22.00 to $24.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Alliance Global Partners upgraded shares of CTO Realty Growth to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, StockNews.com cut CTO Realty Growth from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO John P. Albright sold 29,488 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.71, for a total transaction of $610,696.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 570,554 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,816,173.34. This represents a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Christopher W. Haga sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.45, for a total value of $58,350.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 44,988 shares in the company, valued at $875,016.60. This represents a 6.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 35,488 shares of company stock valued at $726,616. Company insiders own 5.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CTO. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of CTO Realty Growth by 11.9% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 393,252 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,666,000 after acquiring an additional 41,938 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CTO Realty Growth by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,079,798 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,303,000 after acquiring an additional 5,617 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of CTO Realty Growth in the first quarter worth about $31,000. Truvestments Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of CTO Realty Growth by 24.9% in the first quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 146,897 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,490,000 after acquiring an additional 29,273 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in CTO Realty Growth by 5.3% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 23,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $392,000 after buying an additional 1,156 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.18% of the company’s stock.

CTO Realty Growth Price Performance

CTO stock opened at $19.53 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $19.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.63. CTO Realty Growth has a 12-month low of $16.16 and a 12-month high of $21.15. The company has a current ratio of 3.96, a quick ratio of 3.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. The company has a market cap of $585.43 million, a PE ratio of 33.10 and a beta of 0.76.

CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.27). The firm had revenue of $31.81 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.15 million. CTO Realty Growth had a net margin of 17.10% and a return on equity of 4.04%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.48 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that CTO Realty Growth will post 1.79 EPS for the current year.

CTO Realty Growth Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 12th were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.78%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 12th. CTO Realty Growth’s dividend payout ratio is presently 257.63%.

About CTO Realty Growth

CTO Realty Growth, Inc is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns and operates a portfolio of high-quality, retail-based properties located primarily in higher growth markets in the United States. CTO also externally manages and owns a meaningful interest in Alpine Income Property Trust, Inc (NYSE: PINE), a publicly traded net lease REIT.