Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRA) Short Interest Down 23.6% in March

Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRA) was the target of a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 601,300 shares, a decrease of 23.6% from the March 15th total of 786,800 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 317,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Vera Bradley from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VRA. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Vera Bradley by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,321,921 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $17,809,000 after buying an additional 51,122 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Vera Bradley by 199.3% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,888,790 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $12,069,000 after buying an additional 1,257,682 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Vera Bradley by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,774,779 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $13,613,000 after buying an additional 137,181 shares during the period. Fund 1 Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Vera Bradley by 93.6% in the 4th quarter. Fund 1 Investments LLC now owns 1,762,471 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $13,571,000 after purchasing an additional 852,330 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Vera Bradley by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 869,226 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $6,667,000 after purchasing an additional 17,024 shares during the period. 59.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Vera Bradley Stock Performance

Shares of VRA opened at $6.35 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $195.52 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.40 and a beta of 1.89. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $7.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $7.25. Vera Bradley has a 52 week low of $4.60 and a 52 week high of $8.35.

Vera Bradley (NASDAQ:VRA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 13th. The textile maker reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $133.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $136.06 million. Vera Bradley had a net margin of 1.66% and a return on equity of 6.69%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Vera Bradley will post 0.63 EPS for the current year.

Vera Bradley Company Profile

Vera Bradley, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells women's handbags, luggage and travel items, fashion and home accessories, and gifts. It operates through three segments: Vera Bradley Direct, Vera Bradley Indirect, and Pura Vida. The company offers bag products, such as totes, crossbodies, satchels, clutches, backpacks, baby bags, and lunch bags; accessories, including ID holders, lanyards, wallets, wristlets, eyewear, scarves, hair accessories, and various technology accessories; bracelets, rings, and necklaces under Pura Vida brand name; and travel products consisting of rolling luggage, cosmetics, and travel and packing accessories, as well as travel bags comprising duffel and weekend bags.