SFL Co. Ltd. (NYSE:SFL) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

SFL Co. Ltd. (NYSE:SFL) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,620,000 shares, a drop of 15.6% from the December 15th total of 1,920,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 852,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.9 days. Approximately 1.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SFL

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its position in SFL by 3.2% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 29,908 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $415,000 after buying an additional 919 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of SFL by 19.8% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,803,656 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $38,915,000 after acquiring an additional 462,789 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of SFL by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,995,617 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $124,859,000 after acquiring an additional 64,875 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in shares of SFL by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,276,865 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $17,723,000 after acquiring an additional 103,600 shares during the period. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in SFL in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,139,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.59% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Fearnley Fonds upgraded shares of SFL from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st.

SFL Price Performance

Shares of SFL opened at $10.87 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.93. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $10.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.28. SFL has a twelve month low of $9.64 and a twelve month high of $14.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.51 billion, a PE ratio of 9.79 and a beta of 0.67.

SFL (NYSE:SFL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The shipping company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.03). SFL had a net margin of 16.03% and a return on equity of 14.61%. The business had revenue of $255.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $243.98 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.23 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 24.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

SFL Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.94%. SFL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 97.30%.

SFL Company Profile

SFL Corporation Ltd., a maritime and offshore asset owning and chartering company, engages in the ownership, operation, and chartering out of vessels and offshore related assets on medium and long-term charters. The company operates in various sectors of the maritime, and shipping and offshore industries, including oil transportation, dry bulk shipments, chemical transportation, oil products transportation, container transportation, car transportation, and drilling rigs.