GeoPark Limited (NYSE:GPRK) Short Interest Update

GeoPark Limited (NYSE:GPRK) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,010,000 shares, a growth of 33.5% from the December 15th total of 756,700 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 520,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GPRK. Employees Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in GeoPark in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Blue Trust Inc. purchased a new position in shares of GeoPark in the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in GeoPark during the 3rd quarter worth $44,000. Barclays PLC lifted its position in GeoPark by 392.3% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 8,974 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 7,151 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DGS Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in GeoPark in the third quarter valued at $148,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on GPRK shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of GeoPark from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of GeoPark from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday.

GeoPark Stock Performance

Shares of GPRK opened at $10.48 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.28. GeoPark has a 1 year low of $7.24 and a 1 year high of $11.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $535.90 million, a PE ratio of 5.32 and a beta of 1.35.

GeoPark (NYSE:GPRK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The oil and gas company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.11). GeoPark had a return on equity of 57.93% and a net margin of 14.97%. The firm had revenue of $159.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.99 million. On average, analysts predict that GeoPark will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

GeoPark Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a dividend of $0.147 per share. This represents a $0.59 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. GeoPark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.95%.

About GeoPark

GeoPark Limited operates as an oil and natural gas exploration and production company primarily in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and other Latin American countries. It engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas reserves. The company was formerly known as GeoPark Holdings Limited and changed its name to GeoPark Limited in July 2013.