Guild Holdings (NYSE:GHLD) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Guild Holdings (NYSE:GHLD) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,500 shares, a drop of 6.8% from the July 31st total of 5,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 15,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.4 days. Currently, 0.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Terry Lynn Schmidt bought 3,630 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $16.12 per share, with a total value of $58,515.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,798,606 shares in the company, valued at $45,113,528.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Guild news, CEO Terry Lynn Schmidt bought 3,630 shares of Guild stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $16.12 per share, with a total value of $58,515.60. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 2,798,606 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,113,528.72. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO David Manuel Neylan bought 1,984 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $16.12 per share, for a total transaction of $31,982.08. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief operating officer now directly owns 396,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,393,143.64. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have bought 12,248 shares of company stock valued at $197,438. 77.98% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Guild

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GHLD. Bridges Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Guild in the second quarter valued at $10,497,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Guild by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 27,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $410,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Guild in the 1st quarter worth approximately $149,000. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. raised its holdings in Guild by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 440,878 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,503,000 after acquiring an additional 9,126 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Guild by 8.2% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 237,853 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,508,000 after purchasing an additional 17,992 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 17.52% of the company’s stock.

Guild Stock Performance

NYSE GHLD opened at $16.18 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $15.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.05 and a quick ratio of 0.05. The company has a market capitalization of $992.55 million, a P/E ratio of 38.52, a PEG ratio of 0.28 and a beta of 1.03. Guild has a 1-year low of $9.59 and a 1-year high of $18.25.

Guild (NYSE:GHLD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.21. Guild had a net margin of 3.28% and a return on equity of 5.83%. The firm had revenue of $285.69 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $257.97 million. Sell-side analysts expect that Guild will post 1.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GHLD has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Guild from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. JMP Securities boosted their target price on Guild from $14.00 to $16.50 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Wedbush raised their price target on Guild from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Guild from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.30.

About Guild

Guild Holdings Company originates, sells, and services residential mortgage loans in the United States. It operates in two segments, Origination and Servicing. The company offers residential mortgages through retail and correspondent channels. Guild Holdings Company was incorporated in 1960 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.