Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRL) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRL) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,870,000 shares, a growth of 7.9% from the March 15th total of 2,660,000 shares. Currently, 13.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 622,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,622,873 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $176,257,000 after purchasing an additional 12,128 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store by 0.8% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,549,306 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $302,682,000 after buying an additional 21,310 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,920,469 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $129,056,000 after acquiring an additional 35,042 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store by 13.0% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 848,891 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $96,434,000 after acquiring an additional 97,728 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 752,989 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $85,540,000 after acquiring an additional 50,927 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.01% of the company’s stock.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CBRL traded down $0.75 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $60.09. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 721,462 shares, compared to its average volume of 655,713. The company has a market capitalization of $1.33 billion, a PE ratio of 16.02, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.45. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store has a fifty-two week low of $56.79 and a fifty-two week high of $116.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.58. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $68.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $71.61.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (NASDAQ:CBRL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.08. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store had a return on equity of 23.13% and a net margin of 2.43%. The company had revenue of $935.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $917.83 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.48 EPS. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store’s quarterly revenue was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cracker Barrel Old Country Store will post 4.62 EPS for the current year.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 7th. Investors of record on Friday, April 12th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 11th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.65%. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store’s dividend payout ratio is presently 138.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on CBRL shares. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store from $75.00 to $72.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Cracker Barrel Old Country Store from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Cracker Barrel Old Country Store from $82.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Cracker Barrel Old Country Store from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.14.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Company Profile

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc develops and operates the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store concept in the United States. Its Cracker Barrel stores consist of restaurants with a gift shop. The company's restaurants serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily, as well as dine-in, pick-up, and delivery services.