Federal Signal Co. (NYSE:FSS) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Federal Signal Co. (NYSE:FSS) saw a large decrease in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,540,000 shares, a decrease of 7.6% from the December 15th total of 2,750,000 shares. Approximately 4.3% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 391,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.5 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Federal Signal

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Federal Signal by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 20,311 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,699,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Albion Financial Group UT increased its holdings in Federal Signal by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 12,126 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,120,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its position in Federal Signal by 4.1% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 4,269 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $399,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. boosted its position in shares of Federal Signal by 4.9% in the second quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 3,812 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $319,000 after buying an additional 178 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of Federal Signal by 73.5% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 432 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.73% of the company’s stock.

Federal Signal Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of FSS traded down $0.96 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $96.88. The company had a trading volume of 1,096,262 shares, compared to its average volume of 300,808. The stock has a market cap of $5.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.08 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $94.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $92.10. Federal Signal has a fifty-two week low of $73.09 and a fifty-two week high of $102.18.

Federal Signal (NYSE:FSS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The conglomerate reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $474.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $481.71 million. Federal Signal had a return on equity of 18.46% and a net margin of 11.57%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Federal Signal will post 3.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Federal Signal Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. Federal Signal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.91%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FSS. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of Federal Signal in a report on Tuesday, December 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Federal Signal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 28th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Federal Signal from $94.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th.

About Federal Signal

Federal Signal Corp. engages in the design and manufacture of products and integrated solutions for municipal, governmental, industrial, and commercial customers. It operates through the Environmental Solutions Group and Safety and Security Systems Group segments. The Environment Solutions Group segment is involved in the manufacture and supply of street sweeper vehicles, sewer cleaners, vacuum loader trucks, hydro-excavation trucks, and water blasting equipment.