Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) Short Interest Down 11.2% in December

Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) saw a large decrease in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,170,000 shares, a decrease of 11.2% from the December 15th total of 3,570,000 shares. Approximately 7.1% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 473,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 6.7 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Itron

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in Itron by 45.9% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 16,674 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,810,000 after buying an additional 5,249 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Itron in the 4th quarter worth approximately $301,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Itron by 78.3% in the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,083 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $660,000 after buying an additional 2,671 shares during the period. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Itron by 154.9% in the 4th quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 864 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $94,000 after buying an additional 525 shares during the period. Finally, Burney Co. boosted its holdings in Itron by 129.0% in the 4th quarter. Burney Co. now owns 8,795 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $955,000 after buying an additional 4,955 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on ITRI shares. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Itron from $110.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Itron from $120.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Janney Montgomery Scott began coverage on shares of Itron in a report on Friday, September 27th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $131.00 target price on the stock. Roth Mkm upped their target price on shares of Itron from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Itron from $125.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Itron currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $123.92.

Itron Stock Performance

Shares of ITRI stock traded up $0.91 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $105.36. 394,015 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 353,397. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $112.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $106.62. The company has a current ratio of 3.36, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. Itron has a 52-week low of $69.23 and a 52-week high of $124.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.59, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.47.

Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.71. Itron had a net margin of 9.37% and a return on equity of 19.03%. The company had revenue of $615.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $596.41 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. Itron’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Itron will post 5.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Itron Company Profile

Itron, Inc, a technology, solutions, and service company, provides end-to-end solutions that help manage energy, water, and smart city operations worldwide. It operates in three segments: Device Solutions, Networked Solutions, and Outcomes. The Device Solutions segment offers hardware products that are used for measurement, control, or sensing, such as standard gas, electricity, water, and communicating meters, as well as heat and allocation products.