Federated Hermes, Inc. (NYSE:FHI) Short Interest Update

Federated Hermes, Inc. (NYSE:FHI) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,910,000 shares, a decrease of 34.6% from the October 15th total of 2,920,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 554,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.4 days. Approximately 2.4% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Federated Hermes from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. TD Cowen raised shares of Federated Hermes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $35.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Monday, October 28th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Federated Hermes from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Federated Hermes from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Federated Hermes from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.33.

Federated Hermes Stock Up 0.4 %

FHI traded up $0.17 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $42.18. 553,269 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 711,846. Federated Hermes has a 1 year low of $31.08 and a 1 year high of $42.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.45 billion, a PE ratio of 13.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $37.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $34.84.

Federated Hermes (NYSE:FHI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $408.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $410.26 million. Federated Hermes had a net margin of 16.62% and a return on equity of 29.85%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.86 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Federated Hermes will post 3.83 EPS for the current year.

Federated Hermes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Federated Hermes’s payout ratio is 39.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Federated Hermes

In related news, VP Dolores D. Dudiak sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.89, for a total transaction of $199,450.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 77,288 shares in the company, valued at $3,083,018.32. The trade was a 6.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Saker Anwar Nusseibeh sold 12,152 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.86, for a total transaction of $484,378.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 179,096 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,138,766.56. This represents a 6.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FHI. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Federated Hermes by 88.3% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,689,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,866,000 after acquiring an additional 1,261,097 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management purchased a new position in Federated Hermes in the second quarter valued at approximately $11,913,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Federated Hermes by 39.8% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,142,192 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,555,000 after purchasing an additional 324,958 shares during the period. AXA S.A. purchased a new stake in Federated Hermes in the second quarter worth $6,200,000. Finally, Interval Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Federated Hermes by 60.4% in the first quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 409,854 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,804,000 after buying an additional 154,370 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.94% of the company’s stock.

About Federated Hermes

Federated Hermes, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides its services to individuals, including high net worth individuals, banking or thrift institutions, investment companies, pension and profit sharing plans, pooled investment vehicles, charitable organizations, state or municipal government entities, and registered investment advisors.