CTO Realty Growth, Inc. (NYSE:CTO) Short Interest Update

CTO Realty Growth, Inc. (NYSE:CTO) saw a significant increase in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,500,000 shares, an increase of 8.7% from the November 30th total of 1,380,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 433,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO John P. Albright sold 29,488 shares of CTO Realty Growth stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.71, for a total value of $610,696.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 570,554 shares in the company, valued at $11,816,173.34. This trade represents a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 5.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CTO Realty Growth

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in CTO Realty Growth by 145.0% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 88,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,531,000 after acquiring an additional 52,500 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in CTO Realty Growth by 162.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 161,291 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,068,000 after purchasing an additional 99,943 shares during the period. AXA S.A. acquired a new position in shares of CTO Realty Growth in the second quarter valued at $900,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of CTO Realty Growth in the third quarter valued at about $404,000. Finally, Atom Investors LP acquired a new stake in shares of CTO Realty Growth during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,149,000. 67.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CTO Realty Growth Price Performance

NYSE:CTO opened at $19.71 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 3.96, a quick ratio of 3.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $19.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.19. CTO Realty Growth has a 1-year low of $16.16 and a 1-year high of $21.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $590.83 million, a PE ratio of 33.41 and a beta of 0.77.

CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.27). The firm had revenue of $31.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.15 million. CTO Realty Growth had a net margin of 17.10% and a return on equity of 4.04%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.48 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that CTO Realty Growth will post 1.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CTO Realty Growth Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 12th were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 12th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.71%. CTO Realty Growth’s dividend payout ratio is 257.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CTO has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James upgraded shares of CTO Realty Growth from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $22.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com downgraded CTO Realty Growth from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, CTO Realty Growth presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.00.

About CTO Realty Growth

CTO Realty Growth, Inc is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns and operates a portfolio of high-quality, retail-based properties located primarily in higher growth markets in the United States. CTO also externally manages and owns a meaningful interest in Alpine Income Property Trust, Inc (NYSE: PINE), a publicly traded net lease REIT.