Park Aerospace Corp. (NYSE:PKE) Short Interest Up 15.7% in January

Park Aerospace Corp. (NYSE:PKE) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 229,000 shares, a growth of 15.7% from the January 15th total of 197,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 58,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.9 days. Currently, 1.3% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Park Aerospace

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PKE. Royce & Associates LP increased its stake in shares of Park Aerospace by 55.8% in the 4th quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 579,151 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $8,485,000 after acquiring an additional 207,478 shares in the last quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP increased its stake in shares of Park Aerospace by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 2,524,503 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $36,984,000 after acquiring an additional 107,447 shares in the last quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC increased its stake in shares of Park Aerospace by 71.0% in the 4th quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC now owns 164,638 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $2,412,000 after acquiring an additional 68,337 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Park Aerospace by 112.3% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 82,203 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,204,000 after acquiring an additional 43,490 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Uniplan Investment Counsel Inc. increased its stake in shares of Park Aerospace by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Uniplan Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 244,636 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $3,584,000 after acquiring an additional 41,477 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.83% of the company’s stock.

Park Aerospace Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PKE traded down $0.27 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $14.05. The stock had a trading volume of 36,997 shares, compared to its average volume of 60,378. The firm has a market cap of $279.82 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.02 and a beta of 0.43. Park Aerospace has a twelve month low of $11.96 and a twelve month high of $16.96. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $14.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $14.04.

Park Aerospace (NYSE:PKE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The semiconductor company reported $0.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Park Aerospace had a net margin of 11.90% and a return on equity of 7.02%.

Park Aerospace Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.56%. Park Aerospace’s dividend payout ratio is currently 138.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Park Aerospace from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd.

About Park Aerospace

Park Aerospace Corp., an aerospace company, develops and manufactures solution and hot-melt advanced composite materials used to produce composite structures for the aerospace market in North America, Asia, and Europe. It offers advanced composite materials, including film adhesives and lightning strike protection materials that are used to produce primary and secondary structures for jet engines, large and regional transport aircrafts, military aircrafts, unmanned aerial vehicles, business jets, general aviation aircrafts, and rotary wing aircrafts.