Short Interest in Balchem Co. (NASDAQ:BCPC) Declines By 5.7%

Balchem Co. (NASDAQ:BCPC) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 337,300 shares, a decline of 5.7% from the March 31st total of 357,800 shares. Currently, 1.1% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 99,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Balchem

In other Balchem news, CAO William A. Backus sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.19, for a total value of $1,086,330.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,914 shares in the company, valued at approximately $917,793.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Michael Robert Sestrick sold 11,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.21, for a total transaction of $1,700,631.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 6,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,032,022.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO William A. Backus sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.19, for a total value of $1,086,330.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,914 shares in the company, valued at approximately $917,793.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 76,630 shares of company stock worth $11,843,249. Corporate insiders own 1.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BCPC. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Balchem in the 4th quarter valued at $52,233,000. APG Asset Management US Inc. acquired a new position in Balchem in the 4th quarter valued at $39,164,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Balchem by 4,678.4% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 262,671 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $39,072,000 after buying an additional 257,174 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in Balchem in the 1st quarter valued at $19,771,000. Finally, Comerica Bank acquired a new position in Balchem in the 3rd quarter valued at $11,750,000. 87.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Balchem Stock Performance

Shares of BCPC stock traded up $0.78 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $140.01. 58,318 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 103,075. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.52 billion, a PE ratio of 41.56, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.71. Balchem has a twelve month low of $110.74 and a twelve month high of $159.52. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $151.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $140.23.

Balchem (NASDAQ:BCPC) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The basic materials company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $228.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $234.66 million. Balchem had a return on equity of 10.69% and a net margin of 11.77%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Balchem will post 4.1 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com cut Balchem from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th.

About Balchem

Balchem Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets specialty performance ingredients and products for the nutritional, food, pharmaceutical, animal health, medical device sterilization, plant nutrition, and industrial markets worldwide. It operates through three segments: Human Nutrition and Health, Animal Nutrition and Health, and Specialty Products.