Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 25,535,642 shares, an increase of 49.0% from the March 15th total of 17,135,901 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 7,374,371 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.5 days. Approximately 5.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ELAN. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 133.7% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,096 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 627 shares during the last quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 2,563.5% during the 3rd quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 1,385 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 1,333 shares during the last quarter. Huntington National Bank raised its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 136.7% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,882 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 1,087 shares during the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 50.7% during the 4th quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,759 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 592 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Uniplan Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Elanco Animal Health during the 4th quarter worth $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.48% of the company’s stock.

Elanco Animal Health Price Performance

Elanco Animal Health stock traded down $0.84 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $23.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,220,029 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,419,417. Elanco Animal Health has a fifty-two week low of $8.02 and a fifty-two week high of $27.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 2.17. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.57 billion, a PE ratio of -48.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.88.

Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.02. Elanco Animal Health had a positive return on equity of 7.16% and a negative net margin of 4.92%.The company had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.14 earnings per share. Elanco Animal Health’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Elanco Animal Health has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.330-0.36 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 1.000-1.060 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Elanco Animal Health will post 0.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ELAN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Elanco Animal Health from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 19th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Elanco Animal Health in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Elanco Animal Health from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Piper Sandler raised Elanco Animal Health from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $24.00 to $30.00 in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Elanco Animal Health in a report on Friday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.90.

Elanco Animal Health Company Profile

Elanco Animal Health Inc is a global leader in animal health dedicated to improving food and companion animal well-being. The company develops, manufactures and markets a range of products, including parasiticides, vaccines, antibiotics and feed additives designed to prevent and treat disease in livestock and pets. Elanco’s portfolio spans both food-producing animals—such as cattle, swine, poultry and aquaculture—and companion animals, with offerings that support parasite control, pain management and infectious disease prevention.

Originally founded as the animal health division of Eli Lilly and Company in the mid-20th century, Elanco was spun off into an independent publicly traded company in 2018.