Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) Short Interest Up 23.6% in May

Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,560,000 shares, an increase of 23.6% from the May 15th total of 3,690,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,740,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.7 days. Currently, 0.2% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Sanofi in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $56.00 price target on Sanofi in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Sanofi to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Sanofi in a research note on Friday, March 21st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating on shares of Sanofi in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sanofi

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Sanofi by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,059,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $581,619,000 after acquiring an additional 408,752 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Sanofi by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 12,017,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $579,587,000 after acquiring an additional 441,637 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Sanofi by 1.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,036,878 shares of the company’s stock worth $612,106,000 after acquiring an additional 193,196 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of Sanofi by 86.4% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,396,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,607,000 after acquiring an additional 2,501,073 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of Sanofi by 58.5% during the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,947,583 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,933,000 after acquiring an additional 1,456,269 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 14.04% of the company’s stock.

Sanofi Price Performance

SNY opened at $47.62 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $51.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.00. Sanofi has a 1 year low of $45.80 and a 1 year high of $60.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $116.79 billion, a PE ratio of 17.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.50.

Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.04. Sanofi had a return on equity of 17.15% and a net margin of 14.56%. The company had revenue of $10.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.79 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.78 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Sanofi will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sanofi Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 9th were paid a dividend of $2.0369 per share. This is a positive change from Sanofi’s previous annual dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 9th. This represents a dividend yield of 3.1%. Sanofi’s payout ratio is presently 57.14%.

About Sanofi

Sanofi, a healthcare company, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of therapeutic solutions in the United States, Europe, Canada, and internationally. It operates through Pharmaceuticals, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare segments. The company provides specialty care, such as DUPIXENT, neurology and immunology, rare diseases, oncology, and rare blood disorders; medicines for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases; and established prescription products.