Kennedy-Wilson Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KW) Short Interest Up 19.4% in March

Kennedy-Wilson Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KW) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 3,933,324 shares, an increase of 19.4% from the March 15th total of 3,295,165 shares. Approximately 3.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,216,058 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Kennedy-Wilson Price Performance

KW traded up $0.02 on Friday, hitting $10.90. 726,339 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 945,659. Kennedy-Wilson has a 12 month low of $5.98 and a 12 month high of $10.99. The business has a 50-day moving average of $10.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.75, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -37.57 and a beta of 0.93.

Kennedy-Wilson Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 31st. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.4%. Kennedy-Wilson’s dividend payout ratio is currently -165.52%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kennedy-Wilson

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC lifted its position in Kennedy-Wilson by 98.9% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 2,327 shares during the period. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in Kennedy-Wilson during the second quarter worth about $58,000. Advisory Services Network LLC acquired a new position in Kennedy-Wilson during the third quarter worth about $71,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV acquired a new position in Kennedy-Wilson during the third quarter worth about $86,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Kennedy-Wilson by 99.6% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 10,636 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $88,000 after acquiring an additional 5,307 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Kennedy-Wilson from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $11.00.

About Kennedy-Wilson

Kennedy-Wilson Holdings, Inc is a publicly traded global real estate investment company that acquires, develops and manages a diversified portfolio of properties. Its core activities include investing in office, multifamily, retail, industrial and self-storage assets while providing comprehensive property management, leasing, capital markets and investment management services to institutional and private clients.

Headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, Kennedy-Wilson operates through two principal business segments: Investments and Asset Services.