CommScope Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COMM) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

CommScope Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COMM) saw a large growth in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,810,000 shares, a growth of 8.0% from the March 31st total of 8,160,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,020,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on COMM. Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of CommScope in a report on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “underweight” rating on shares of CommScope in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on CommScope from $2.00 to $1.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, StockNews.com cut CommScope from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $4.02.

CommScope Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ COMM opened at $0.87 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $184.25 million, a P/E ratio of -0.12 and a beta of 1.98. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1.86. CommScope has a 1 year low of $0.86 and a 1 year high of $6.65.

CommScope (NASDAQ:COMM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.02 by ($0.09). CommScope had a negative return on equity of 7.18% and a negative net margin of 21.64%. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that CommScope will post -0.48 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at CommScope

In other CommScope news, Director L William Krause bought 57,300 shares of CommScope stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $1.59 per share, for a total transaction of $91,107.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 227,873 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $362,318.07. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of CommScope

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of CommScope by 8.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,076,845 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $124,578,000 after acquiring an additional 2,745,209 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in CommScope by 42.7% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 13,071,560 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $36,862,000 after purchasing an additional 3,911,673 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in CommScope by 28.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,790,900 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $16,330,000 after purchasing an additional 1,280,636 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in CommScope by 1.0% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 4,103,657 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $13,788,000 after purchasing an additional 42,580 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of CommScope by 35.9% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,699,394 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $5,481,000 after buying an additional 448,980 shares during the period. 88.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About CommScope

CommScope Holding Company, Inc provides infrastructure solutions for communications, data center, and entertainment networks worldwide. The company operates through Connectivity and Cable Solutions (CCS); Outdoor Wireless Networks (OWN); Networking, Intelligent Cellular and Security Solutions (NICS), and Access Network Solutions (ANS) segments.