Ecovyst Inc. (NYSE:ECVT) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Ecovyst Inc. (NYSE:ECVT) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,640,000 shares, a decline of 8.4% from the March 15th total of 1,790,000 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 799,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.1 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ecovyst news, Director Susan F. Ward sold 24,436 shares of Ecovyst stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.28, for a total transaction of $251,202.08. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 67,587 shares in the company, valued at approximately $694,794.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 3.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Ecovyst by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,795,380 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,227,000 after acquiring an additional 1,128,473 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Ecovyst by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,380,026 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,549,000 after acquiring an additional 531,919 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Ecovyst by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 6,661,635 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,084,000 after acquiring an additional 66,310 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Ecovyst by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,824,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,904,000 after acquiring an additional 266,615 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Shapiro Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Ecovyst by 6.1% during the 1st quarter. Shapiro Capital Management LLC now owns 5,799,456 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,042,000 after acquiring an additional 335,297 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.69% of the company’s stock.

Ecovyst Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of ECVT stock traded down $0.29 on Monday, hitting $10.03. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 407,634 shares, compared to its average volume of 770,187. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 1.69. Ecovyst has a fifty-two week low of $8.26 and a fifty-two week high of $12.35. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $9.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.43, a P/E/G ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 1.01.

Ecovyst (NYSE:ECVT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.01). Ecovyst had a net margin of 10.30% and a return on equity of 11.08%. The business had revenue of $172.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $168.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.23 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Ecovyst will post 0.81 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Ecovyst from $11.50 to $13.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th.

Ecovyst Company Profile

Ecovyst Inc offers specialty catalysts and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Ecoservices and Advanced Materials & Catalysts. The Ecoservices segment provides sulfuric acid recycling services and end-to-end logistics for production of alkylate for refineries; and virgin sulfuric acid for mining, water treatment, and industrial applications.