ChampionX Co. (NASDAQ:CHX) Short Interest Update

ChampionX Co. (NASDAQ:CHX) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,810,000 shares, a decline of 10.4% from the March 15th total of 8,720,000 shares. Currently, 4.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,010,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.9 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider William Jr. O’dell sold 27,178 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.00, for a total transaction of $978,408.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 57,748 shares in the company, valued at $2,078,928. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.38% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its stake in ChampionX by 10.5% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 74,057 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,813,000 after acquiring an additional 7,061 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ChampionX by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 24,501,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $599,791,000 after buying an additional 126,529 shares in the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can lifted its position in ChampionX by 8.1% in the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 110,119 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,768,000 after buying an additional 8,223 shares during the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in ChampionX by 2.3% in the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 109,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,673,000 after buying an additional 2,439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its position in ChampionX by 17.8% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 694,766 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,014,000 after acquiring an additional 104,849 shares during the last quarter. 98.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on CHX shares. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on ChampionX from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of ChampionX from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of ChampionX from $39.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.33.

ChampionX Price Performance

ChampionX stock traded down $0.30 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $36.64. 1,637,968 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,007,428. The company’s fifty day moving average is $33.27 and its 200-day moving average is $31.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.82. ChampionX has a 52 week low of $24.98 and a 52 week high of $39.95. The firm has a market cap of $7.00 billion, a PE ratio of 23.34, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 2.44.

ChampionX (NASDAQ:CHX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $943.56 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $947.33 million. ChampionX had a net margin of 8.36% and a return on equity of 20.14%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that ChampionX will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

ChampionX Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be given a dividend of $0.095 per share. This represents a $0.38 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This is an increase from ChampionX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. ChampionX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.20%.

ChampionX Company Profile

ChampionX Corporation provides chemistry solutions, artificial lift systems, and engineered equipment and technologies to oil and gas companies worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Production Chemical Technologies, Production & Automation Technologies, Drilling Technologies, and Reservoir Chemical Technologies.