Compañía Cervecerías Unidas S.A. (NYSE:CCU) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Compañía Cervecerías Unidas S.A. (NYSE:CCU) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 848,300 shares, an increase of 14.5% from the October 15th total of 740,800 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 199,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.3 days.

Compañía Cervecerías Unidas Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Compañía Cervecerías Unidas stock opened at $10.89 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.55. Compañía Cervecerías Unidas has a 12-month low of $10.00 and a 12-month high of $13.74.

Compañía Cervecerías Unidas Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 1st will be given a dividend of $0.1498 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a dividend yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from Compañía Cervecerías Unidas’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.10. Compañía Cervecerías Unidas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Compañía Cervecerías Unidas

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCU. Naples Global Advisors LLC increased its position in Compañía Cervecerías Unidas by 12.6% in the 2nd quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 33,595 shares of the company’s stock valued at $382,000 after acquiring an additional 3,750 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Compañía Cervecerías Unidas by 55.3% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 18,231 shares of the company’s stock valued at $219,000 after acquiring an additional 6,495 shares in the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd acquired a new stake in Compañía Cervecerías Unidas in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,121,000. Ritholtz Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Compañía Cervecerías Unidas in the 2nd quarter valued at about $146,000. Finally, Privium Fund Management UK Ltd increased its position in Compañía Cervecerías Unidas by 98.1% in the 2nd quarter. Privium Fund Management UK Ltd now owns 120,892 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,348,000 after acquiring an additional 59,863 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CCU. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Compañía Cervecerías Unidas from $10.50 to $9.40 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Compañía Cervecerías Unidas from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $21.00 to $10.00 in a report on Thursday, August 8th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Compañía Cervecerías Unidas from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded shares of Compañía Cervecerías Unidas from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.08.

Compañía Cervecerías Unidas Company Profile

Compañía Cervecerías Unidas SA operates as a beverage company in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The company operates through three segments: Chile, International Business, and Wine. It produces and sells alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer under proprietary and licensed brands, as well as distributes Pernod Ricard products in non-supermarket retail stores.