Short Interest in PPDAI Group Inc. Sponsored ADR (NYSE:FINV) Expands By 58.5%

PPDAI Group Inc. Sponsored ADR (NYSE:FINV) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 6,377,563 shares, an increase of 58.5% from the March 15th total of 4,023,909 shares. Approximately 4.5% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,302,974 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days.

Institutional Trading of PPDAI Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of PPDAI Group by 57.7% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 5,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 2,083 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in PPDAI Group by 28.5% during the 4th quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,462 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,000 after buying an additional 3,655 shares during the period. FourThought Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in PPDAI Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $120,000. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in PPDAI Group by 110.4% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 26,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,000 after buying an additional 13,855 shares during the period. Finally, Abacus Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPDAI Group in the fourth quarter worth $221,000. 31.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

PPDAI Group Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE FINV traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $5.10. 425,993 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,234,689. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $5.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $5.57. PPDAI Group has a twelve month low of $4.51 and a twelve month high of $10.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 2.86 and a current ratio of 2.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.30.

PPDAI Group (NYSE:FINV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, February 14th. The company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter. PPDAI Group had a return on equity of 16.39% and a net margin of 18.70%.The company had revenue of $432.21 million for the quarter.

PPDAI Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.306 per share. This is a positive change from PPDAI Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 16th. This represents a yield of 497.0%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of PPDAI Group in a research note on Friday, March 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $12.10.

About PPDAI Group

PPDAI Group Inc operates an online consumer finance marketplace that connects individual and institutional investors with personal and small-business borrowers. Through its digital platform, the company facilitates unsecured consumer loans, auto refinancing loans and small-business financing by leveraging proprietary credit assessment tools and big data analytics. Investors gain exposure to a diversified portfolio of retail credit assets, while borrowers benefit from streamlined application processes and competitive financing rates.

At the core of PPDAI’s offering is a multi-layered risk management framework that combines automated credit scoring, manual underwriting oversight and third-party data verification.