PPDAI Group Inc. Sponsored ADR (NYSE:FINV) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

PPDAI Group Inc. Sponsored ADR (NYSE:FINV) was the target of a large drop in short interest in March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 4,023,909 shares, a drop of 14.3% from the February 26th total of 4,694,706 shares. Currently, 2.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 990,847 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.1 days.

PPDAI Group Price Performance

NYSE FINV traded up $0.01 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $4.72. 243,622 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,267,641. The company has a market cap of $1.20 billion, a PE ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.29. The company has a current ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 2.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. PPDAI Group has a fifty-two week low of $4.51 and a fifty-two week high of $10.90. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $5.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $5.78.

PPDAI Group (NYSE:FINV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, February 14th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $432.21 million for the quarter. PPDAI Group had a net margin of 18.70% and a return on equity of 16.39%.

PPDAI Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared an annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.306 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 497.0%. This is a boost from PPDAI Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 16th.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of PPDAI Group in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $12.10.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PPDAI Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FINV. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in PPDAI Group by 114.5% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 59,266 shares of the company’s stock valued at $571,000 after purchasing an additional 31,641 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of PPDAI Group by 573.9% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,050,439 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,116,000 after buying an additional 894,566 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in shares of PPDAI Group by 2.6% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 475,988 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,584,000 after buying an additional 12,000 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in PPDAI Group by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 510,777 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,869,000 after buying an additional 33,207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in PPDAI Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $94,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 31.15% of the company’s stock.

PPDAI Group Company Profile

PPDAI Group Inc operates an online consumer finance marketplace that connects individual and institutional investors with personal and small-business borrowers. Through its digital platform, the company facilitates unsecured consumer loans, auto refinancing loans and small-business financing by leveraging proprietary credit assessment tools and big data analytics. Investors gain exposure to a diversified portfolio of retail credit assets, while borrowers benefit from streamlined application processes and competitive financing rates.

At the core of PPDAI’s offering is a multi-layered risk management framework that combines automated credit scoring, manual underwriting oversight and third-party data verification.