Short Interest in Fluor Co. (NYSE:FLR) Expands By 5.6%

Fluor Co. (NYSE:FLR) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,600,000 shares, a growth of 5.6% from the October 31st total of 6,250,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,130,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days.

Fluor Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FLR traded up $1.58 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $56.28. The company had a trading volume of 1,780,296 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,712,916. The stock has a market cap of $9.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.46, a PEG ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.89. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $52.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $48.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. Fluor has a 12 month low of $35.04 and a 12 month high of $60.10.

Fluor (NYSE:FLR) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The construction company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.25). Fluor had a net margin of 1.64% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The business had revenue of $4.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.74 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.02 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fluor will post 2.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FLR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Fluor from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Fluor from $51.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Fluor from $61.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Fluor from $57.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup raised Fluor from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fluor presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.29.

Insider Transactions at Fluor

In related news, CFO Joseph L. Brennan sold 15,335 shares of Fluor stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.57, for a total transaction of $729,485.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 57,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,751,163.38. The trade was a 20.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Mark E. Fields sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.63, for a total transaction of $2,831,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 147,045 shares in the company, valued at $8,327,158.35. This represents a 25.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 81,261 shares of company stock worth $4,360,074. Company insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fluor

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Fluor by 20.3% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 78,374 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $3,311,000 after purchasing an additional 13,203 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fluor by 230.5% in the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 59,403 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,587,000 after buying an additional 41,428 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fluor by 139.1% during the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 17,174 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $819,000 after acquiring an additional 9,992 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fluor by 63.8% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 570,368 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $24,771,000 after acquiring an additional 222,070 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fluor during the first quarter worth $713,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.07% of the company’s stock.

Fluor Company Profile

Fluor Corporation provides engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC); fabrication and modularization; operation and maintenance; asset integrity; and project management services worldwide. The company operates through Energy Solutions, Urban Solutions, Mission Solutions, and Other segments. The Energy Solutions segment provides solutions to the energy transition markets, including asset decarbonization, carbon capture, renewable fuels, waste-to-energy, green chemicals, hydrogen, nuclear power, and other low-carbon energy sources.