Berry Co. (NASDAQ:BRY) Short Interest Update

Berry Co. (NASDAQ:BRY) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,940,000 shares, a decrease of 22.9% from the May 15th total of 5,110,000 shares. Approximately 5.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,120,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.5 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, TheStreet upgraded Berry from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Berry

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in Berry by 211.9% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 3,905 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 2,653 shares during the period. Viking Fund Management LLC purchased a new stake in Berry in the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. AJOVista LLC acquired a new position in Berry during the fourth quarter worth $58,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new stake in shares of Berry in the third quarter valued at $66,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Berry in the 4th quarter valued at $105,000. 94.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Berry Price Performance

BRY stock traded down $0.07 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $6.18. The stock had a trading volume of 747,970 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,221,856. Berry has a 52-week low of $6.12 and a 52-week high of $8.94. The company has a market cap of $475.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 618.00 and a beta of 1.74. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $7.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $7.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The energy company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $202.31 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $182.65 million. Berry had a net margin of 0.41% and a return on equity of 6.15%. The firm’s revenue was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.07 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Berry will post 0.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Berry Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.77%. Berry’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4,800.00%.

About Berry

Berry Petroleum Company, LLC., formerly Berry Petroleum Company, is an independent energy company. The Company is engaged in the production, development, exploitation, and acquisition of oil and natural gas. The Company’s principal reserves and producing properties are located in California (South Midway-Sunset (SMWSS)-Steam Floods, North Midway-Sunset (NMWSS)-Diatomite, NMWSS-New Steam Floods, Texas (Permian and E.