Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW) saw a significant decline in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 967,100 shares, a decline of 7.9% from the March 15th total of 1,050,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 183,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.3 days. Currently, 5.8% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Calavo Growers

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CVGW. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in shares of Calavo Growers by 17.0% during the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,089 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky raised its stake in shares of Calavo Growers by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 5,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 311 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Calavo Growers by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,145 shares of the company’s stock valued at $321,000 after purchasing an additional 328 shares during the period. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. increased its stake in Calavo Growers by 5.5% in the 1st quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 7,365 shares of the company’s stock worth $270,000 after acquiring an additional 384 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Calavo Growers by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 163,524 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,809,000 after acquiring an additional 437 shares during the last quarter. 81.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Calavo Growers Trading Up 2.1 %

CVGW stock opened at $25.15 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $26.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.03 and a quick ratio of 1.70. Calavo Growers has a 1-year low of $21.42 and a 1-year high of $38.97.

Calavo Growers (NASDAQ:CVGW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 11th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.17 by ($0.18). Calavo Growers had a positive return on equity of 0.49% and a negative net margin of 1.32%. The business had revenue of $127.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $254.25 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.08) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Calavo Growers will post 1.04 EPS for the current year.

Calavo Growers Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 1st will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 28th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. Calavo Growers’s payout ratio is presently -60.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $32.00 target price on shares of Calavo Growers in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th.

About Calavo Growers

Calavo Growers, Inc markets and distributes avocados, prepared avocados, and other perishable foods to retail grocery and foodservice customers, club stores, mass merchandisers, food distributors, and wholesale customers worldwide. It operates through Grown and Prepared segments. The Grown segment distributes tomatoes and papayas; and procures avocados grown in California, Mexico, Peru, and Colombia.