Rocky Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKY) Short Interest Up 22.6% in January

Rocky Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKY) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 96,600 shares, an increase of 22.6% from the January 15th total of 78,800 shares. Approximately 1.5% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 43,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.2 days.

Institutional Trading of Rocky Brands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in RCKY. Inspire Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Rocky Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $339,000. Summit Global Investments purchased a new stake in shares of Rocky Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $341,000. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of Rocky Brands by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 30,994 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $987,000 after buying an additional 1,474 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Rocky Brands by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 20,999 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $669,000 after purchasing an additional 1,001 shares during the period. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new position in Rocky Brands in the 3rd quarter worth $224,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

RCKY has been the subject of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Rocky Brands from $32.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Rocky Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 8th.

Rocky Brands Price Performance

NASDAQ RCKY traded down $0.18 on Friday, hitting $23.81. The stock had a trading volume of 16,060 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,575. Rocky Brands has a 52-week low of $19.65 and a 52-week high of $40.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 2.79. The company has a market capitalization of $177.38 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.38 and a beta of 2.10. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $23.59 and a 200-day moving average of $26.08.

Rocky Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a $0.155 dividend. This represents a $0.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. Rocky Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.83%.

About Rocky Brands

Rocky Brands, Inc designs, manufactures, and markets footwear and apparel in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It operates through Wholesale, Retail, and Contract Manufacturing segments. The Wholesale segment offers products, which includes sporting goods stores, outdoor retailers, independent shoe retailers, hardware stores, catalogs, mass merchants, uniform stores, farm store chains, specialty safety stores, specialty retailers, and online retailers in retail locations through a range of distribution channels.