FreightCar America, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAIL) Short Interest Up 16.8% in September

FreightCar America, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAIL) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 269,300 shares, an increase of 16.8% from the August 31st total of 230,500 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 230,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.2 days. Approximately 1.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Nigris Felan Jose De bought 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $10.19 per share, for a total transaction of $40,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 73,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $745,367.93. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Nigris Felan Jose De purchased 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $10.19 per share, for a total transaction of $40,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 73,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $745,367.93. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director William D. Gehl sold 10,000 shares of FreightCar America stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.83, for a total value of $108,300.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 147,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,598,594.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 28.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FreightCar America

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of FreightCar America by 43.4% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 116,887 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $408,000 after acquiring an additional 35,387 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of FreightCar America by 24.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,932 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $104,000 after purchasing an additional 5,880 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in FreightCar America by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 584,292 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,250,000 after purchasing an additional 26,412 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 31.96% of the company’s stock.

FreightCar America Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of RAIL traded down $0.15 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $9.75. The company had a trading volume of 265,587 shares, compared to its average volume of 500,487. The firm has a market cap of $183.98 million, a P/E ratio of -6.33 and a beta of 2.00. FreightCar America has a 52-week low of $2.25 and a 52-week high of $11.55. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $6.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $4.61.

FreightCar America (NASDAQ:RAIL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 12th. The transportation company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.05. The firm had revenue of $147.42 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $127.09 million. FreightCar America had a negative return on equity of 28.11% and a negative net margin of 0.62%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.02 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that FreightCar America will post 0.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

RAIL has been the topic of several research reports. Noble Financial raised shares of FreightCar America to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. StockNews.com cut shares of FreightCar America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday.

About FreightCar America

FreightCar America, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in design, manufacture, and sale of railcars and railcar components for the transportation of bulk commodities and containerized freight products in the United States and Mexico. It operates in two segments, Manufacturing and Parts. The company offers a range of railcars, including open top hoppers, mill gondola cars, intermodal and non-intermodal flat cars, coal cars; bulk commodity cars covered hopper cars, coil steel cars, boxcars, woodchip hoppers, aluminum vehicle carriers, and articulated bulk container railcars.