PPDAI Group Inc. Sponsored ADR (NYSE:FINV) Short Interest Update

PPDAI Group Inc. Sponsored ADR (NYSE:FINV) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 4,023,909 shares, a decline of 14.3% from the February 26th total of 4,694,706 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 990,847 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.1 days. Currently, 2.8% of the company’s shares are sold short.

PPDAI Group Trading Up 2.0%

NYSE FINV opened at $4.89 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 0.30. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $5.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $5.76. The company has a current ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 2.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. PPDAI Group has a 52 week low of $4.51 and a 52 week high of $10.90.

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

PPDAI Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 16th will be given a dividend of $0.306 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 16th. This is a positive change from PPDAI Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.28. This represents a dividend yield of 497.0%. PPDAI Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.67%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in PPDAI Group by 114.5% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 59,266 shares of the company’s stock worth $571,000 after purchasing an additional 31,641 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in shares of PPDAI Group by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 510,777 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,869,000 after purchasing an additional 33,207 shares in the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of PPDAI Group during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $94,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of PPDAI Group by 57.7% during the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 5,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 2,083 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Abacus Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PPDAI Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $221,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 31.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of PPDAI Group in a report on Friday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.