Short Interest in Brady Co. (NYSE:BRC) Declines By 7.3%

Brady Co. (NYSE:BRC) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 522,000 shares, a decline of 7.3% from the December 15th total of 562,900 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 259,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days. Currently, 1.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Brady

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BRC. Point72 DIFC Ltd raised its stake in Brady by 161.4% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 651 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the period. Quarry LP grew its holdings in Brady by 36.1% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 962 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Brady by 91.1% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,754 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 836 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Brady by 10,983.3% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,995 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $153,000 after acquiring an additional 1,977 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Brady by 173.9% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,342 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $179,000 after acquiring an additional 1,487 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com cut Brady from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th.

Brady Stock Performance

Shares of BRC stock traded down $0.04 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $73.53. 436,111 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 255,799. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $74.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.94. The company has a market cap of $3.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.07 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.25. Brady has a 12-month low of $56.09 and a 12-month high of $77.68.

Brady (NYSE:BRC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 18th. The industrial products company reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $377.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $365.88 million. Brady had a net margin of 14.19% and a return on equity of 19.79%. The company’s revenue was up 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.00 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Brady will post 4.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brady Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. Brady’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.59%.

About Brady

Brady Corporation manufactures and supplies identification solutions (IDS) and workplace safety (WPS) products to identify and protect premises, products, and people in the United States and internationally. The company offers materials, printing systems, RFID, and bar code scanners for product identification, brand protection labeling, work in process labeling, finished product identification, and industrial track and trace applications; safety signs, floor-marking tapes, pipe markers, labeling systems, spill control products, lockout/tagout device, and software and services for safety compliance auditing, procedure writing, and training; and hand-held printers, wire markers, sleeves, and tags for wire identification.