Jackson Financial Inc. (NYSE:JXN) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Jackson Financial Inc. (NYSE:JXN) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,500,000 shares, an increase of 23.2% from the March 31st total of 2,840,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 957,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.7 days. Currently, 5.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on JXN. Barclays reduced their price objective on Jackson Financial from $118.00 to $106.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of Jackson Financial from $105.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Jackson Financial from $92.00 to $86.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $91.40.

Insider Buying and Selling at Jackson Financial

In other news, CEO Scott Romine sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.43, for a total value of $591,010.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 85,276 shares in the company, valued at $7,199,852.68. This trade represents a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Craig Donald Smith sold 20,607 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.52, for a total value of $1,432,598.64. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 116,423 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,093,726.96. This represents a 15.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of JXN. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in shares of Jackson Financial in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Jackson Financial in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Jackson Financial in the first quarter worth about $37,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Jackson Financial during the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in Jackson Financial by 161.9% during the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 550 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. 89.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Jackson Financial Trading Up 4.9 %

Shares of NYSE JXN opened at $81.66 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $89.78. Jackson Financial has a 52 week low of $64.70 and a 52 week high of $115.22. The stock has a market cap of $5.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.13 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.30.

Jackson Financial (NYSE:JXN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.72 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.81 billion. On average, research analysts predict that Jackson Financial will post 20.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jackson Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 11th. This is a boost from Jackson Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.92%. Jackson Financial’s payout ratio is currently 27.95%.

About Jackson Financial

Jackson Financial Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides suite of annuities to retail investors in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Retail Annuities, Institutional Products, and Closed Life and Annuity Blocks. The Retail Annuities segment offers various retirement income and savings products, including variable, fixed index, fixed, and payout annuities, as well as registered index-linked annuities and lifetime income solutions.