Alto Ingredients, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTO) Short Interest Update

Alto Ingredients, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTO) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of May. As of May 29th, there was short interest totaling 2,291,177 shares, a growth of 57.6% from the May 14th total of 1,454,213 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,222,577 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.0 days. Currently, 3.1% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Gilbert E. Nathan purchased 20,000 shares of Alto Ingredients stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were bought at an average price of $4.61 per share, for a total transaction of $92,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 769,741 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,548,506.01. This represents a 2.67% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 4.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ALTO. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alto Ingredients by 8.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 275,552 shares of the company’s stock worth $314,000 after buying an additional 21,626 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Alto Ingredients by 2,539,250.0% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 50,787 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 50,785 shares in the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alto Ingredients by 5.9% in the second quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 487,059 shares of the company’s stock worth $560,000 after buying an additional 27,007 shares in the last quarter. Peapod Lane Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alto Ingredients by 1.1% in the third quarter. Peapod Lane Capital LLC now owns 1,235,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,334,000 after buying an additional 13,282 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Alto Ingredients in the third quarter worth approximately $52,000. Institutional investors own 42.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on ALTO shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Alto Ingredients from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Alto Ingredients from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Alto Ingredients from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, HC Wainwright upped their price objective on shares of Alto Ingredients from $5.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $10.00.

Alto Ingredients Price Performance

Shares of ALTO opened at $4.84 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $375.05 million, a PE ratio of 13.08 and a beta of 0.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 2.54 and a current ratio of 3.81. Alto Ingredients has a fifty-two week low of $0.92 and a fifty-two week high of $5.99. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $5.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $3.79.

Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.08) by $0.13. The business had revenue of $224.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.65 million. Alto Ingredients had a net margin of 3.20% and a return on equity of 9.77%. Analysts anticipate that Alto Ingredients will post 0.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Alto Ingredients

Alto Ingredients, Inc (NASDAQ: ALTO) is a diversified producer of alcohol-based products and specialty ingredients for industrial, food, beverage and personal care applications. The company’s core offering centers on ethanol produced for fuel markets, as well as an expanding portfolio of natural and organic alcohols, glycerin and other ingredient solutions. Alto’s product lines serve a range of end markets, including renewable fuels, confectionery, flavorings, cosmetics and sanitizers.

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Alto Ingredients operates a network of production facilities across the United States.