Short Interest in Franco-Nevada Co. (NYSE:FNV) Increases By 8.6%

Franco-Nevada Co. (NYSE:FNV – Get Rating) (TSE:FNV) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 3,020,000 shares, an increase of 8.6% from the February 13th total of 2,780,000 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 638,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.7 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Franco-Nevada

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Franco-Nevada by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 386,741 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $61,693,000 after purchasing an additional 12,446 shares during the period. Raymond James Trust N.A. raised its stake in shares of Franco-Nevada by 10.2% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 1,995 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $318,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Franco-Nevada by 23.1% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 69,166 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $11,035,000 after purchasing an additional 12,993 shares during the period. Aviva PLC raised its stake in shares of Franco-Nevada by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 62,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,040,000 after purchasing an additional 3,438 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Franco-Nevada by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,358,267 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,014,271,000 after purchasing an additional 141,139 shares during the period. 66.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on FNV shares. Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of Franco-Nevada from $167.00 to $158.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 24th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $145.00 price target on shares of Franco-Nevada in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Franco-Nevada from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 20th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Franco-Nevada in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, National Bank Financial lifted their price target on shares of Franco-Nevada from C$190.00 to C$200.00 in a research report on Friday, January 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $166.57.

Franco-Nevada Price Performance

FNV opened at $136.77 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.63, a P/E/G ratio of 9.88 and a beta of 0.69. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $138.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $132.45. Franco-Nevada has a 1 year low of $109.70 and a 1 year high of $169.32.

Franco-Nevada (NYSE:FNV – Get Rating) (TSE:FNV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 15th. The basic materials company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $320.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $307.88 million. Franco-Nevada had a net margin of 57.18% and a return on equity of 11.27%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.86 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Franco-Nevada will post 3.46 EPS for the current year.

Franco-Nevada Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.99%. This is an increase from Franco-Nevada’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 15th. Franco-Nevada’s payout ratio is currently 32.41%.

Franco-Nevada Company Profile

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Franco-Nevada Corp. engages in the management of gold-focused royalties and streams portfolio. It provides investors with gold price and exploration optionality while limiting exposure to many of the risks of operating companies. The company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.