The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (NYSE:GBX) Short Interest Update

The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (NYSE:GBX) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,130,000 shares, a decline of 6.2% from the December 15th total of 2,270,000 shares. Currently, 7.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 316,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.7 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GBX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Greenbrier Companies from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Greenbrier Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Greenbrier Companies has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.00.

Greenbrier Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GBX traded up $0.31 on Friday, hitting $66.85. The stock had a trading volume of 663,412 shares, compared to its average volume of 292,397. Greenbrier Companies has a twelve month low of $41.40 and a twelve month high of $69.12. The company has a market capitalization of $2.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.54. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $64.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $55.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.53.

Greenbrier Companies (NYSE:GBX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The transportation company reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.56. The company had revenue of $875.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $849.51 million. Greenbrier Companies had a net margin of 5.10% and a return on equity of 12.10%. The company’s revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.96 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Greenbrier Companies will post 5.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Greenbrier Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 29th. Greenbrier Companies’s payout ratio is presently 20.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Ricardo Galvan sold 4,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $321,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 27,472 shares in the company, valued at $1,785,680. This represents a 15.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO William J. Krueger sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.78, for a total transaction of $117,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 48,714 shares in the company, valued at $2,863,408.92. This represents a 3.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,703 shares of company stock valued at $790,338 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.78% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Greenbrier Companies

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in Greenbrier Companies during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Greenbrier Companies by 60.9% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 547 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Gladius Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Greenbrier Companies during the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in Greenbrier Companies in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $55,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in Greenbrier Companies in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $102,000. 95.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Greenbrier Companies

The Greenbrier Companies, Inc designs, manufactures, and markets railroad freight car equipment in North America, Europe, and South America. It operates through three segments: Manufacturing; Maintenance Services; and Leasing & Management Services. The Manufacturing segment offers covered hopper cars, gondolas, open top hoppers, boxcars, center partition cars, tank cars, sustainable conversions, double-stack railcars, auto-max ii, multi-max, and multi-max plus products, intermodal cars, automobile transport, coil steel and metals, flat cars, sliding wall cars, pressurized tank cars, and non-pressurized tank cars.