James River Group Holdings, Ltd. (NASDAQ:JRVR) Short Interest Up 20.7% in December

James River Group Holdings, Ltd. (NASDAQ:JRVR) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,080,000 shares, a growth of 20.7% from the December 15th total of 894,600 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 374,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days. Currently, 3.6% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Trading of James River Group

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in JRVR. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in James River Group by 41.6% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 15,616 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 4,586 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd grew its position in shares of James River Group by 7.2% in the 4th quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 150,135 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $731,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in James River Group by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 195,791 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,228,000 after purchasing an additional 3,433 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in James River Group by 288.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 43,940 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $275,000 after buying an additional 32,621 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in James River Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $320,000. Institutional investors own 95.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, JMP Securities lowered their price target on shares of James River Group from $11.00 to $8.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $10.40.

James River Group Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ JRVR opened at $4.79 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. James River Group has a 12 month low of $4.35 and a 12 month high of $11.49. The company has a market capitalization of $181.21 million, a PE ratio of -1.18 and a beta of 0.06. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $6.25.

James River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The insurance provider reported ($0.74) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.89). The company had revenue of $191.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $137.28 million. James River Group had a negative net margin of 20.84% and a positive return on equity of 3.90%. The business’s revenue was down 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.48 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that James River Group will post -0.35 EPS for the current year.

James River Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.01 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.84%. James River Group’s dividend payout ratio is -0.99%.

James River Group Company Profile

James River Group Holdings, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides specialty insurance services. It operates through Excess and Surplus Lines, and Specialty Admitted Insurance segments. The Excess and Surplus Lines segment underwrites liability and property insurance in the United States Puerto Rice, and the United States Virgin Islands.