Gladstone Land Co. (NASDAQ:LAND) Short Interest Up 16.6% in December

Gladstone Land Co. (NASDAQ:LAND) saw a significant increase in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 781,700 shares, an increase of 16.6% from the December 15th total of 670,500 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 273,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of LAND. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Gladstone Land by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 15,016 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $163,000 after buying an additional 2,736 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Gladstone Land by 62.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 139,298 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,936,000 after acquiring an additional 53,400 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in Gladstone Land by 90.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 85,297 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,186,000 after purchasing an additional 40,459 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Gladstone Land by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 900,632 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,521,000 after purchasing an additional 13,217 shares during the period. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC raised its holdings in Gladstone Land by 29.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 43,121 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $599,000 after purchasing an additional 9,731 shares during the last quarter. 53.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Alliance Global Partners cut shares of Gladstone Land from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $16.00 to $14.50 in a research report on Friday, November 8th.

Gladstone Land Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of LAND opened at $10.77 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $11.29 and a 200-day moving average of $12.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.70. Gladstone Land has a 52 week low of $10.27 and a 52 week high of $15.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $389.77 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -41.42, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.05.

Gladstone Land Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th will be paid a $0.0467 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.20%. Gladstone Land’s dividend payout ratio is -215.38%.

About Gladstone Land

Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion.