Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Co. (NYSE:BAH) Short Interest Up 43.1% in February

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Co. (NYSE:BAH) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,080,000 shares, a growth of 43.1% from the January 31st total of 4,250,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,980,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.1 days. Approximately 4.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Booz Allen Hamilton from $200.00 to $155.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Booz Allen Hamilton to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. William Blair cut Booz Allen Hamilton from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. UBS Group began coverage on Booz Allen Hamilton in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $159.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Barclays upgraded Booz Allen Hamilton from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Booz Allen Hamilton currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $158.27.

Booz Allen Hamilton Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BAH traded up $2.87 on Tuesday, reaching $105.59. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,752,577 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,437,014. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $126.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $146.21. Booz Allen Hamilton has a 52-week low of $101.82 and a 52-week high of $190.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 1.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.74, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.55.

Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE:BAH) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The business services provider reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.07. Booz Allen Hamilton had a net margin of 7.39% and a return on equity of 68.97%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Booz Allen Hamilton will post 6.44 EPS for the current year.

Booz Allen Hamilton Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. This is a boost from Booz Allen Hamilton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Booz Allen Hamilton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.79%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,518,386 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $581,516,000 after purchasing an additional 501,725 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton by 15.3% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,804,642 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $360,957,000 after purchasing an additional 371,390 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton by 2.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,341,533 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $381,898,000 after purchasing an additional 58,038 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton by 179.7% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,767,129 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $227,425,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135,426 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Booz Allen Hamilton by 61.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,552,217 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $199,770,000 after buying an additional 590,655 shares in the last quarter. 91.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Booz Allen Hamilton

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation provides management and technology consulting, analytics, engineering, digital solutions, mission operations, and cyber services to governments, corporations, and not-for-profit organizations in the United States and internationally. It focuses on artificial intelligence services comprising of machine learning, predictive modeling, automation and decision analytics, and quantum computing.