Arq, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARQ) Short Interest Up 18.7% in March

Arq, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARQ) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 1,836,275 shares, an increase of 18.7% from the February 26th total of 1,547,576 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,602,473 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.7 days. Currently, 5.6% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ARQ

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Royce & Associates LP lifted its position in shares of ARQ by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,458,444 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,769,000 after buying an additional 85,000 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in ARQ by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 919,640 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,007,000 after acquiring an additional 62,988 shares during the period. Gratia Capital LLC raised its stake in ARQ by 23.7% during the second quarter. Gratia Capital LLC now owns 857,962 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,607,000 after acquiring an additional 164,310 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in ARQ by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 778,142 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,545,000 after acquiring an additional 3,505 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of ARQ by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 561,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,837,000 after acquiring an additional 5,413 shares during the period. 18.49% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ARQ. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price target on ARQ from $7.50 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Zacks Research upgraded ARQ from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of ARQ in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, ARQ has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.50.

ARQ Price Performance

NASDAQ:ARQ opened at $2.36 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $3.09 and a 200-day moving average of $4.30. The company has a market capitalization of $101.12 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.86 and a beta of 1.96. ARQ has a 52 week low of $1.54 and a 52 week high of $7.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 1.04.

ARQ (NASDAQ:ARQ) last issued its earnings results on Monday, March 9th. The company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.02). ARQ had a negative net margin of 43.72% and a negative return on equity of 1.99%. The business had revenue of $29.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.59 million. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that ARQ will post -0.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About ARQ

Arq, Inc is a holding company. It engages in the provision of environmental and emission control equipment to the power generation industry. The company operates through the following Segments: Refined Coal and Advanced Purification Technologies. The Refined Coal segment includes the Tinuum Group, Tinuum Services, and GWN Manager. The Advanced Purification Technologies segment refers to the sale of Activated Carbon Injection and Dry Sorbent Injection equipment systems, chemical sales, consulting services, and other sales related to the reduction of emissions in the coal-fired electric generation process and the electric utility industry.