CGI Inc. (NYSE:GIB) Short Interest Up 12.8% in December

CGI Inc. (NYSE:GIB) (TSE:GIB.A) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,680,000 shares, an increase of 12.8% from the December 15th total of 1,490,000 shares. Currently, 0.8% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 148,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 11.3 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CGI

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of CGI during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of CGI by 288.2% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 788 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $91,000 after purchasing an additional 585 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its stake in CGI by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,365 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $157,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management acquired a new position in CGI during the third quarter worth approximately $208,000. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans purchased a new stake in CGI in the third quarter valued at approximately $209,000. 66.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on GIB. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $178.00 price target on shares of CGI in a report on Monday, January 6th. CIBC upgraded shares of CGI from a “neutral” rating to an “outperformer” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $178.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of CGI from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts raised shares of CGI from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CGI presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $147.25.

CGI Stock Performance

Shares of GIB opened at $108.42 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.95. CGI has a 52-week low of $96.92 and a 52-week high of $118.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $110.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $110.75.

CGI Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were issued a $0.111 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 20th. CGI’s payout ratio is 8.55%.

CGI Company Profile

CGI Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides information technology (IT) and business process services. Its services include the business and strategic IT consulting, systems integration, and software solutions. The company also provides application development, modernization and maintenance, holistic enterprise digitization, automation, hybrid and cloud management, and business process services; intellectual property-based solutions; business consulting; managed IT services; and IT infrastructure services.