Graham Holdings (NYSE:GHC) Short Interest Down 7.7% in March

Graham Holdings (NYSE:GHC) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 54,800 shares, a drop of 7.7% from the March 15th total of 59,400 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 14,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.9 days. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at Graham

In related news, Director Katharine Weymouth sold 556 shares of Graham stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $712.99, for a total transaction of $396,422.44. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,993 shares in the company, valued at $1,420,989.07. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 32.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Graham by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 365,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $223,328,000 after acquiring an additional 4,345 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Graham by 27,384.9% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 220,704 shares of the company’s stock worth $500,000 after purchasing an additional 219,901 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Graham by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 133,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,334,000 after purchasing an additional 1,334 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Graham by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 75,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,218,000 after purchasing an additional 3,311 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Graham by 20.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 60,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,688,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. 62.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Graham from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 11th.

Graham Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GHC traded down $2.19 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $707.33. 18,827 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,197. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $727.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $674.90. The company has a market cap of $3.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.26 and a beta of 1.11. Graham has a 52 week low of $551.36 and a 52 week high of $771.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 1.50 and a quick ratio of 1.26.

Graham (NYSE:GHC) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 23rd. The company reported $10.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter. Graham had a return on equity of 5.23% and a net margin of 4.65%.

Graham Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 18th will be issued a dividend of $1.72 per share. This represents a $6.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 17th. Graham’s payout ratio is currently 15.83%.

Graham Company Profile

Graham Holdings Company, through its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified education and media company in the United States and internationally. It provides test preparation services and materials; professional training and exam preparation for professional certifications and licensures; and non-academic operations support services to the Purdue University Global; operations support services for online courses and programs; training and test preparation services for accounting and financial services professionals; English-language training, academic preparation programs, and test preparation for English proficiency exams; and A-level examination preparation services, as well as operates colleges, business school, higher education institution, and an online learning institution.