Cars.com Inc. (NYSE:CARS) Short Interest Update

Cars.com Inc. (NYSE:CARS) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 7,307,418 shares, a drop of 13.4% from the March 15th total of 8,437,551 shares. Currently, 12.8% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,536,017 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cars.com

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Inspire Investing LLC grew its holdings in Cars.com by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 38,273 shares of the company’s stock worth $467,000 after purchasing an additional 1,119 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cars.com by 27.7% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 1,279 shares in the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Cars.com by 12.3% in the third quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd now owns 12,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $153,000 after buying an additional 1,367 shares in the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cars.com by 3.3% in the third quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 43,023 shares of the company’s stock worth $526,000 after buying an additional 1,386 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of Cars.com by 30.0% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 7,025 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 1,623 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on CARS. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $13.00 target price on shares of Cars.com in a research report on Friday, April 10th. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $13.00 target price on shares of Cars.com in a research report on Monday, April 13th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Cars.com from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $10.00 target price (down from $16.00) on shares of Cars.com in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Cars.com from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $16.00.

Cars.com Trading Up 3.6%

Shares of NYSE CARS traded up $0.37 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $10.61. 913,690 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,693,003. Cars.com has a 12-month low of $7.40 and a 12-month high of $13.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 1.87. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $9.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $10.84. The firm has a market cap of $622.35 million, a P/E ratio of 33.17 and a beta of 1.46.

Cars.com (NYSE:CARS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.12). Cars.com had a net margin of 2.77% and a return on equity of 17.31%. The company had revenue of $183.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $183.44 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.49 EPS. Cars.com’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Cars.com will post 1.19 earnings per share for the current year.

About Cars.com

Cars.com operates as a leading online automotive marketplace in the United States, connecting car shoppers with new and used vehicle listings from dealerships and private sellers. The platform enables consumers to research makes and models, compare prices, read expert and user reviews, and access tools such as TrueCost to estimate ownership expenses over time. Through its website and mobile applications, Cars.com aims to simplify the car-buying process by aggregating detailed vehicle data, payment calculators, and dealership ratings into a single user-friendly experience.

On the dealer side, Cars.com provides a suite of marketing and lead-generation services designed to help automotive retailers reach potential buyers and manage their online presence.