Short Interest in Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) Grows By 21.6%

Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,350,000 shares, a growth of 21.6% from the February 13th total of 1,110,000 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 375,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in KFY. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Korn Ferry during the fourth quarter worth $644,000. Vise Technologies Inc. increased its position in Korn Ferry by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 4,947 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $334,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares during the period. Castleark Management LLC raised its stake in Korn Ferry by 27.8% during the 4th quarter. Castleark Management LLC now owns 75,240 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,075,000 after acquiring an additional 16,350 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Korn Ferry by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 161,536 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,896,000 after acquiring an additional 15,179 shares during the period. Finally, Sovereign s Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Korn Ferry in the fourth quarter worth $1,221,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.82% of the company’s stock.

Korn Ferry Stock Performance

Shares of KFY stock opened at $67.92 on Thursday. Korn Ferry has a 12 month low of $59.78 and a 12 month high of $80.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.51 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 2.07. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $67.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $70.58.

Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 11th. The business services provider reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $676.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $650.45 million. Korn Ferry had a net margin of 9.03% and a return on equity of 14.27%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.07 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Korn Ferry will post 4.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Korn Ferry Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 27th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.83%. This is a boost from Korn Ferry’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. Korn Ferry’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.29%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on KFY. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Korn Ferry from $78.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Korn Ferry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th.

About Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry, together with its subsidiaries, provides organizational consulting services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Consulting, Digital, Executive Search, and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) & Professional Search. The company provides executive search services to recruit board level, chief executive, other senior executive, and general management talent of organizations.