TORM (NASDAQ:TRMD) Trading Down 1.6% After Analyst Downgrade

TORM plc (NASDAQ:TRMD) traded down 1.6% during mid-day trading on Friday after Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on the stock from $37.00 to $32.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. TORM traded as low as $23.17 and last traded at $23.25. 282,093 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 771,616 shares. The stock had previously closed at $23.63.

TRMD has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Fearnley Fonds raised shares of TORM to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on TORM from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TORM

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new stake in shares of TORM during the first quarter valued at $1,229,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of TORM during the first quarter worth about $115,000. Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in shares of TORM by 18.4% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 79,609 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,700,000 after buying an additional 12,353 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in TORM during the first quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in TORM by 7.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,179,417 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,221,000 after acquiring an additional 85,937 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.89% of the company’s stock.

TORM Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 2.24, a current ratio of 2.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.72.

TORM (NASDAQ:TRMD) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The company reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.03. TORM had a net margin of 43.81% and a return on equity of 34.45%. The business had revenue of $437.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $325.38 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.14 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that TORM plc will post 6.41 EPS for the current year.

TORM Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.876 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 15.07%. TORM’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.05%.

About TORM

TORM plc, a shipping company, owns and operates a fleet of product tankers in the United Kingdom. It operates in two operating segments, Tanker and Marine Exhaust. The Tanker segment transports refined oil products, such as gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, naphtha, and gas oil, as well as dirty petroleum products, including fuel oil.