Short Interest in Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY) Drops By 8.5%

Getty Realty Corp. (NYSE:GTY) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,160,000 shares, a decline of 8.5% from the September 30th total of 2,360,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 337,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 6.4 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on GTY shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of Getty Realty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $34.00 in a report on Monday, October 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Getty Realty from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, JMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of Getty Realty from $31.50 to $33.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Getty Realty has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Getty Realty

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Getty Realty by 17.9% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 151,406 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,141,000 after buying an additional 23,004 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Getty Realty by 11.7% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 289,385 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,915,000 after acquiring an additional 30,393 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Getty Realty by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,516,139 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $219,622,000 after purchasing an additional 220,049 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its stake in shares of Getty Realty by 3.7% during the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 42,969 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,175,000 after purchasing an additional 1,540 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Getty Realty during the second quarter valued at approximately $958,000. 85.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Getty Realty Stock Performance

NYSE:GTY opened at $31.40 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.44, a current ratio of 2.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. Getty Realty has a twelve month low of $25.70 and a twelve month high of $33.23. The stock has a market cap of $1.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.84 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.45.

Getty Realty (NYSE:GTY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.28). Getty Realty had a net margin of 32.97% and a return on equity of 6.84%. The company had revenue of $51.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.79 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Getty Realty will post 2.21 EPS for the current year.

Getty Realty Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 9th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 26th will be given a dividend of $0.47 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 26th. This is a positive change from Getty Realty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.99%. Getty Realty’s payout ratio is currently 153.85%.

Getty Realty Company Profile