Sappi Ltd. (OTCMKTS:SPPJY) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Sappi Ltd. (OTCMKTS:SPPJY) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of May. As of May 29th, there was short interest totaling 23,624 shares, a growth of 817.8% from the May 14th total of 2,574 shares. Approximately 0.0% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 17,380 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.4 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Zacks Research raised shares of Sappi from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Sappi Trading Down 4.8%

OTCMKTS:SPPJY opened at $0.70 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $0.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $1.18. Sappi has a 12 month low of $0.68 and a 12 month high of $2.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market cap of $423.21 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.63 and a beta of 0.55.

Sappi (OTCMKTS:SPPJY) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The basic materials company reported ($0.08) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by ($0.04). Sappi had a negative return on equity of 4.85% and a negative net margin of 12.70%.The company had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. Equities analysts predict that Sappi will post -0.18 EPS for the current year.

Sappi Company Profile

Sappi Limited, trading on the OTCMKTS as SPPJY, is a global pulp and paper company headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. Originally established in 1936 as South African Pulp and Paper Industries, Sappi has grown into a diversified manufacturer of dissolving wood pulp, graphic papers, packaging and specialty papers. The company serves customers in over 150 countries and operates a network of mills and sales offices across three key regions: Europe, North America and South Africa.

Sappi’s product portfolio is organized into several main categories.