Short Interest in Basf Se (OTCMKTS:BASFY) Expands By 19.6%

Basf Se (OTCMKTS:BASFY) was the target of a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 70,200 shares, a growth of 19.6% from the February 13th total of 58,700 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 281,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.2 days. Currently, 0.0% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Basf Price Performance

BASFY stock opened at $14.25 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $12.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $12.15. Basf has a 12-month low of $10.57 and a 12-month high of $14.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $50.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.07, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Basf (OTCMKTS:BASFY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.05. Basf had a net margin of 0.78% and a return on equity of 6.63%. The firm had revenue of $16.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.72 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict that Basf will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Berenberg Bank lowered shares of Basf from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Basf in a report on Friday, March 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Basf currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

About Basf

BASF SE operates as a chemical company worldwide. It operates through six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care, and Agricultural Solutions. The Chemicals segment provides petrochemicals and intermediates. The Materials segment offers advanced materials and their precursors for applications and systems comprising isocyanates, polyamides, and inorganic basic products, as well as specialties for plastics and plastics processing industries.