Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE:CMP) Short Interest Up 8.3% in May

Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE:CMP) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,300,000 shares, a growth of 8.3% from the May 15th total of 3,970,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 734,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.9 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Compass Minerals International in the 1st quarter worth approximately $204,000. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Compass Minerals International by 49.8% in the 1st quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 49,425 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $778,000 after buying an additional 16,422 shares during the last quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Compass Minerals International in the 1st quarter worth approximately $7,486,000. Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new position in shares of Compass Minerals International in the 1st quarter worth approximately $216,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Compass Minerals International by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,722 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $516,000 after purchasing an additional 1,358 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.78% of the company’s stock.

Compass Minerals International Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE CMP opened at $11.10 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 1.15. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $12.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $18.46. Compass Minerals International has a one year low of $10.88 and a one year high of $39.78.

Compass Minerals International (NYSE:CMP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The basic materials company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $1.26. The business had revenue of $364.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $386.97 million. Compass Minerals International had a negative net margin of 7.47% and a positive return on equity of 22.03%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.46) EPS. Analysts forecast that Compass Minerals International will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on CMP shares. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Compass Minerals International from $25.00 to $20.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Loop Capital raised shares of Compass Minerals International from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $26.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Friday, April 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.00.

About Compass Minerals International

Compass Minerals International, Inc, provides essential minerals in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Salt and Plant Nutrition. The Salt segment produces, markets, and sells sodium chloride and magnesium chloride, including rock salt, mechanically and solar evaporated salt, and brine and flake magnesium chloride products; and purchases potassium chloride and calcium chloride to sell as finished products or to blend with sodium chloride to produce specialty products.