Short Interest in Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) Rises By 8.6%

Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,410,000 shares, a growth of 8.6% from the August 15th total of 4,060,000 shares. Currently, 3.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,450,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HAS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Hasbro from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Hasbro from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Hasbro from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Hasbro from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Hasbro in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.55.

Hasbro Trading Up 1.1 %

HAS traded up $0.74 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $71.16. The stock had a trading volume of 1,251,412 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,682,206. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $60.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.95, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 0.61. Hasbro has a 1-year low of $42.66 and a 1-year high of $72.20.

Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.44. Hasbro had a negative net margin of 22.78% and a positive return on equity of 38.83%. The company had revenue of $995.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $941.38 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.49 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Hasbro will post 3.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hasbro Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.93%. Hasbro’s payout ratio is -27.61%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hasbro

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Hasbro by 27.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,381,255 shares of the company’s stock worth $785,367,000 after acquiring an additional 3,273,563 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Hasbro by 7.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,858,541 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,723,000 after acquiring an additional 135,548 shares during the period. Samlyn Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hasbro by 87.4% during the second quarter. Samlyn Capital LLC now owns 1,833,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $107,252,000 after acquiring an additional 855,099 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Hasbro during the first quarter worth $82,523,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Hasbro during the fourth quarter worth $70,544,000. 91.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Hasbro

Hasbro, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a toy and game company in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Australia, China, and Hong Kong. The company operates through Consumer Products; Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming; Entertainment; and Corporate and Other segments.