CGI Inc. (NYSE:GIB) Short Interest Up 12.8% in January

CGI Inc. (NYSE:GIB) (TSE:GIB.A) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,680,000 shares, an increase of 12.8% from the December 31st total of 1,490,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 148,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 11.3 days. Approximately 0.8% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GIB. CIBC raised shares of CGI from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $155.00 to $178.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of CGI from $118.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $178.00 target price on shares of CGI in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of CGI from $140.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Cibc World Mkts raised shares of CGI from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $153.25.

CGI Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:GIB traded up $0.31 on Monday, reaching $118.13. 307,498 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 198,619. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.94. CGI has a 1-year low of $96.92 and a 1-year high of $121.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company’s 50 day moving average is $111.08 and its 200-day moving average is $111.47.

CGI (NYSE:GIB) (TSE:GIB.A) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $1.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.41. CGI had a net margin of 11.72% and a return on equity of 19.32%. Equities research analysts anticipate that CGI will post 5.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CGI Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.1039 per share. This represents a $0.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. CGI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.32%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CGI

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Canoe Financial LP purchased a new position in CGI during the 4th quarter valued at about $94,390,000. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in CGI by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,513,733 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $519,072,000 after buying an additional 861,771 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of CGI by 68.2% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,368,822 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $157,485,000 after purchasing an additional 555,017 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of CGI by 182.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 476,758 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,808,000 after purchasing an additional 308,040 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its holdings in shares of CGI by 1.4% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 16,290,487 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,876,550,000 after purchasing an additional 230,000 shares in the last quarter. 66.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About CGI

CGI Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides information technology (IT) and business process services. Its services include the business and strategic IT consulting, systems integration, and software solutions. The company also provides application development, modernization and maintenance, holistic enterprise digitization, automation, hybrid and cloud management, and business process services; intellectual property-based solutions; business consulting; managed IT services; and IT infrastructure services.