Short Interest in Federated Hermes, Inc. (NYSE:FHI) Expands By 8.2%

Federated Hermes, Inc. (NYSE:FHI – Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 2,370,000 shares, a growth of 8.2% from the February 13th total of 2,190,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 622,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days. Approximately 2.8% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Saker Anwar Nusseibeh sold 9,933 shares of Federated Hermes stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.12, for a total transaction of $388,578.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 256,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,036,979.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Federated Hermes news, Director Michael J. Farrell sold 10,000 shares of Federated Hermes stock in a transaction on Monday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.64, for a total value of $386,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 50,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,939,728. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Saker Anwar Nusseibeh sold 9,933 shares of Federated Hermes stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.12, for a total transaction of $388,578.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 256,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,036,979.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,417 shares of company stock valued at $833,461. Insiders own 5.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Federated Hermes

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in Federated Hermes by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 13,001,719 shares of the company’s stock valued at $442,838,000 after buying an additional 466,504 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Federated Hermes by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,230,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $314,407,000 after buying an additional 73,168 shares during the period. Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors LP boosted its position in Federated Hermes by 39.2% during the 4th quarter. Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors LP now owns 4,504,318 shares of the company’s stock valued at $163,552,000 after buying an additional 1,269,097 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Federated Hermes by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,270,015 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,182,000 after buying an additional 15,260 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Federated Hermes by 6.1% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,190,575 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,611,000 after buying an additional 126,825 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.82% of the company’s stock.

Federated Hermes Price Performance

Federated Hermes stock traded down $0.34 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $39.74. 373,036 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 749,286. The company’s fifty day moving average is $39.23 and its 200-day moving average is $36.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a current ratio of 2.53. The firm has a market cap of $3.55 billion, a PE ratio of 15.07 and a beta of 1.05. Federated Hermes has a 52 week low of $27.88 and a 52 week high of $41.20.

Federated Hermes (NYSE:FHI – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 26th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $373.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $381.41 million. Federated Hermes had a net margin of 16.57% and a return on equity of 26.80%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Federated Hermes will post 3.22 EPS for the current year.

Federated Hermes Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 8th were paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 7th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. Federated Hermes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.60%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on FHI. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Federated Hermes in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Federated Hermes from $42.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.13.

About Federated Hermes

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Federated Hermes, Inc is engaged in the provision of investment management products and related financial services. It sponsors, markets and provides investment-related services to sponsored investment companies, federated funds, and separate accounts which include separately managed accounts, institutional accounts, sub-advised funds and other managed products in both domestic and international markets.