Gladstone Land Co. (NASDAQ:LAND) Short Interest Up 16.6% in February

Gladstone Land Co. (NASDAQ:LAND) saw a significant growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,140,000 shares, a growth of 16.6% from the February 13th total of 977,600 shares. Approximately 3.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 376,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Gladstone Land news, Director Anthony W. Parker sold 6,601 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.02, for a total transaction of $72,743.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 7.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Gladstone Land

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Gladstone Land by 224.2% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,929 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 1,334 shares during the period. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new stake in Gladstone Land during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in Gladstone Land during the 4th quarter worth approximately $62,000. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its holdings in Gladstone Land by 63.2% during the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 5,841 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 2,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in Gladstone Land in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $118,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.60% of the company’s stock.

Gladstone Land Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ LAND traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $10.72. 37,481 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 232,000. The firm has a market capitalization of $387.72 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -36.96, a PEG ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 1.11. Gladstone Land has a 52-week low of $10.27 and a 52-week high of $15.36. The company’s 50-day moving average is $11.05 and its 200-day moving average is $12.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.99.

Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.19. Gladstone Land had a net margin of 15.59% and a return on equity of 1.89%. The business had revenue of $21.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.45 million. Analysts expect that Gladstone Land will post 0.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gladstone Land Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, January 27th were paid a $0.0467 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 24th. This is a boost from Gladstone Land’s previous dividend of $0.04. This represents a dividend yield of 5.33%. Gladstone Land’s payout ratio is presently -193.10%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Gladstone Land from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th.

Gladstone Land Company Profile

Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion.