Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,100,000 shares, a growth of 11.7% from the December 15th total of 984,500 shares. Currently, 2.2% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 338,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Arian sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.24, for a total transaction of $1,444,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 68,869 shares in the company, valued at $4,975,096.56. The trade was a 22.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Korn Ferry

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Korn Ferry by 2.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,069,906 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $156,503,000 after buying an additional 40,240 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Korn Ferry during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $103,546,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Korn Ferry by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,217,031 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $91,587,000 after purchasing an additional 28,014 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in Korn Ferry by 13.2% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 988,005 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $74,337,000 after purchasing an additional 115,523 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in Korn Ferry by 7.0% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 949,378 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $71,431,000 after buying an additional 62,385 shares during the last quarter. 98.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Korn Ferry Stock Performance

NYSE KFY opened at $70.69 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $71.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $71.21. The firm has a market cap of $3.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.11 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 2.07. Korn Ferry has a 1 year low of $55.26 and a 1 year high of $80.64.

Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 5th. The business services provider reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.21. The firm had revenue of $682.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $675.35 million. Korn Ferry had a net margin of 9.03% and a return on equity of 14.27%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Korn Ferry will post 4.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Korn Ferry Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 20th were paid a $0.37 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 20th. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.09%. Korn Ferry’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KFY has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Korn Ferry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Korn Ferry from $78.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Korn Ferry Company Profile

Korn Ferry, together with its subsidiaries, provides organizational consulting services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Consulting, Digital, Executive Search, and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) & Professional Search. The company provides executive search services to recruit board level, chief executive, other senior executive, and general management talent of organizations.