Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:KRNY) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 427,700 shares, a growth of 8.0% from the October 31st total of 395,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 332,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.3 days. Currently, 0.8% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Kearny Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of KRNY. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Kearny Financial by 101.6% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,419,996 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $8,733,000 after acquiring an additional 715,500 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Kearny Financial by 144.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 798,200 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $4,909,000 after purchasing an additional 471,155 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Kearny Financial by 79.2% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 564,572 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $3,879,000 after purchasing an additional 249,437 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its holdings in shares of Kearny Financial by 259.3% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 136,691 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock worth $841,000 after purchasing an additional 98,643 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Kearny Financial by 124.5% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 177,805 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock valued at $1,094,000 after purchasing an additional 98,598 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Kearny Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th.

Kearny Financial Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ KRNY opened at $8.14 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $6.64. Kearny Financial has a fifty-two week low of $5.28 and a fifty-two week high of $9.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08.

Kearny Financial (NASDAQ:KRNY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The savings and loans company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10. Kearny Financial had a negative net margin of 27.43% and a positive return on equity of 3.05%. The company had revenue of $87.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.70 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.16 EPS.

Kearny Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 6th. Kearny Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -30.34%.

About Kearny Financial

Kearny Financial Corp. operates as the holding company for Kearny Bank that provides various banking products and services in the United States. It offers various deposit products, including interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts, money market deposit accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit accounts.