Short Interest in Farmer Bros. Co. (NASDAQ:FARM) Increases By 6.3%

Farmer Bros. Co. (NASDAQ:FARM) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 56,100 shares, a growth of 6.3% from the August 31st total of 52,800 shares. Currently, 0.3% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 56,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.0 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Farmer Bros.

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FARM. Sanders Morris Harris LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Farmer Bros. in the 1st quarter valued at $250,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Farmer Bros. by 8.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 824,528 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,944,000 after buying an additional 65,277 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Farmer Bros. by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 367,919 shares of the company’s stock valued at $986,000 after buying an additional 17,327 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Farmer Bros. by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 559,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,499,000 after buying an additional 7,600 shares during the period. 64.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FARM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Roth Mkm decreased their price objective on Farmer Bros. from $6.00 to $4.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. StockNews.com lowered Farmer Bros. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Craig Hallum initiated coverage on Farmer Bros. in a report on Monday, June 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $6.00 price objective on the stock.

Farmer Bros. Price Performance

Shares of Farmer Bros. stock traded down $0.07 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $1.91. 131,792 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 68,170. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market cap of $40.61 million, a P/E ratio of -0.83 and a beta of 1.79. Farmer Bros. has a 52 week low of $1.86 and a 52 week high of $4.04. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $2.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.86.

Farmer Bros. (NASDAQ:FARM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 12th. The company reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.22). Farmer Bros. had a negative return on equity of 27.35% and a negative net margin of 1.14%. The business had revenue of $84.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.30 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.84) EPS. Research analysts forecast that Farmer Bros. will post -0.69 earnings per share for the current year.

About Farmer Bros.

Farmer Bros. Co engages in the roasting, wholesale, equipment servicing, and distribution of coffee, tea, and other allied products in the United States. The company offers roast and ground coffee; frozen liquid coffee; flavoured and unflavoured iced and hot teas; culinary products, including spices, pancake and biscuit mixes, gravy and sauce mixes, soup bases, dressings, and syrups and sauces, as well as coffee filters, cups, sugar, and creamers; and other beverages comprising cappuccino, cocoa, granitas, and other blender-based beverages and concentrated and ready-to-drink cold brew and iced coffee.