Short Interest in Brookfield Business Partners L.P. (NYSE:BBU) Drops By 8.9%

Brookfield Business Partners L.P. (NYSE:BBU) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 47,300 shares, a decline of 8.9% from the September 30th total of 51,900 shares. Currently, 0.1% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 14,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.4 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BBU. Bank of Montreal Can increased its holdings in shares of Brookfield Business Partners by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 767,726 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $15,036,000 after acquiring an additional 22,886 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in shares of Brookfield Business Partners by 12.7% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 681,562 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $12,910,000 after buying an additional 77,017 shares during the last quarter. K2 Principal Fund L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Brookfield Business Partners by 58.3% during the first quarter. K2 Principal Fund L.P. now owns 156,353 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,455,000 after buying an additional 57,553 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Brookfield Business Partners by 29.9% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 117,189 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,731,000 after buying an additional 26,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AYAL Capital Advisors Ltd increased its position in Brookfield Business Partners by 97.4% in the 2nd quarter. AYAL Capital Advisors Ltd now owns 45,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $848,000 after acquiring an additional 22,200 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $32.00 target price on shares of Brookfield Business Partners in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.40.

Brookfield Business Partners Stock Up 0.6 %

BBU stock traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $22.40. The company had a trading volume of 2,548 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,034. Brookfield Business Partners has a fifty-two week low of $13.00 and a fifty-two week high of $24.96. The company has a market capitalization of $1.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.27.

Brookfield Business Partners (NYSE:BBU) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The business services provider reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.95). The company had revenue of $11.95 billion for the quarter. Brookfield Business Partners had a return on equity of 21.76% and a net margin of 7.34%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. Analysts forecast that Brookfield Business Partners will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Brookfield Business Partners

Brookfield Business Partners L.P. is a private equity firm specializing in acquisition. The firm typically invests in business services, infrastructure services, construction, energy, and industrials sector. It prefers to take majority stake in companies. The firm seeks returns of at least 15% on its investments.