Basf Se (OTCMKTS:BASFY) Short Interest Up 124.0% in February

Basf Se (OTCMKTS:BASFY) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 58,700 shares, a growth of 124.0% from the January 31st total of 26,200 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 645,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.1 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BASFY has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Berenberg Bank cut Basf from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Basf from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Basf from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Basf has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Basf Price Performance

BASFY traded up $0.08 on Friday, reaching $12.66. The stock had a trading volume of 143,488 shares, compared to its average volume of 241,030. The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a market capitalization of $45.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 79.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.19. Basf has a fifty-two week low of $10.57 and a fifty-two week high of $14.89. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $11.81 and a 200-day moving average of $11.98.

Basf (OTCMKTS:BASFY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.05. Basf had a net margin of 0.78% and a return on equity of 6.63%. The firm had revenue of $16.92 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.72 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Basf will post 0.83 EPS for the current year.

About Basf

BASF SE operates as a chemical company worldwide. It operates through six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care, and Agricultural Solutions. The Chemicals segment provides petrochemicals and intermediates. The Materials segment offers advanced materials and their precursors for applications and systems comprising isocyanates, polyamides, and inorganic basic products, as well as specialties for plastics and plastics processing industries.