Franco-Nevada Co. (NYSE:FNV) Short Interest Down 6.1% in August

Franco-Nevada Co. (NYSE:FNV) (TSE:FNV) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,950,000 shares, a decline of 6.1% from the August 15th total of 3,140,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 594,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.0 days. Approximately 1.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on FNV. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Franco-Nevada from $129.00 to $133.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $185.00 price objective on shares of Franco-Nevada in a report on Friday, August 16th. TD Cowen raised Franco-Nevada from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com raised Franco-Nevada from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on Franco-Nevada from $141.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $152.75.

Institutional Trading of Franco-Nevada

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Franco-Nevada by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 12,286,603 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,456,208,000 after purchasing an additional 64,429 shares during the period. FIL Ltd boosted its stake in Franco-Nevada by 7.8% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 9,079,951 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,005,852,000 after purchasing an additional 659,324 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Franco-Nevada by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,626,736 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,022,452,000 after purchasing an additional 151,566 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Franco-Nevada by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,374,086 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $878,696,000 after purchasing an additional 129,876 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Franco-Nevada by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,597,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $547,807,000 after purchasing an additional 120,367 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 77.06% of the company’s stock.

Franco-Nevada Stock Performance

Shares of FNV traded down $0.93 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $123.63. 35,631 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 647,101. The company has a market cap of $23.79 billion, a PE ratio of -50.02, a PEG ratio of 20.59 and a beta of 0.76. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $123.57 and its 200-day moving average is $121.26. Franco-Nevada has a 52 week low of $102.29 and a 52 week high of $145.74.

Franco-Nevada (NYSE:FNV) (TSE:FNV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 13th. The basic materials company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $260.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $277.44 million. Franco-Nevada had a positive return on equity of 10.56% and a negative net margin of 51.64%. The business’s revenue was down 21.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.95 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Franco-Nevada will post 3.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Franco-Nevada Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 12th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. Franco-Nevada’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -57.83%.

About Franco-Nevada

Franco-Nevada Corporation operates as a gold-focused royalty and streaming company in South America, Central America, Mexico, the United States, Canada, and internationally. It operates through Mining and Energy segments. The company manages its portfolio with a focus on precious metals, such as gold, silver, and platinum group metals; and engages in the sale of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids through a third-party marketing agent.