Berry Co. (NASDAQ:BRY) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Berry Co. (NASDAQ:BRY) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,760,000 shares, a decrease of 8.0% from the September 15th total of 3,000,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,040,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.7 days. Approximately 3.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Berry from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Fernando Araujo sold 33,950 shares of Berry stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.22, for a total value of $211,169.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 253,045 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,573,939.90. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Berry

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Berry by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,527,531 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $29,248,000 after buying an additional 219,468 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Berry by 1.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,359,786 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $35,096,000 after acquiring an additional 77,487 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management raised its holdings in Berry by 11.0% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,696,400 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $10,959,000 after purchasing an additional 167,537 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in Berry by 23.6% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,664,292 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $10,751,000 after purchasing an additional 318,223 shares during the period. Finally, Meros Investment Management LP boosted its stake in Berry by 14.5% during the 2nd quarter. Meros Investment Management LP now owns 1,326,707 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $8,571,000 after purchasing an additional 167,718 shares in the last quarter. 94.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Berry Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BRY opened at $5.36 on Friday. Berry has a fifty-two week low of $4.82 and a fifty-two week high of $8.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The company has a market cap of $412.39 million, a PE ratio of 536.00 and a beta of 1.72. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $5.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $6.63.

Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 9th. The energy company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.02). Berry had a negative net margin of 4.19% and a positive return on equity of 6.69%. The business had revenue of $197.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $187.38 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.15 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Berry will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Berry Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 23rd. Berry’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4,800.00%.

About Berry

Berry Petroleum Company, LLC., formerly Berry Petroleum Company, is an independent energy company. The Company is engaged in the production, development, exploitation, and acquisition of oil and natural gas. The Company’s principal reserves and producing properties are located in California (South Midway-Sunset (SMWSS)-Steam Floods, North Midway-Sunset (NMWSS)-Diatomite, NMWSS-New Steam Floods, Texas (Permian and E.