WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) Short Interest Up 87.5% in March

WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,950,000 shares, an increase of 87.5% from the February 28th total of 1,040,000 shares. Approximately 5.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 733,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.7 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On WEX

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Investment Management Corp VA ADV bought a new position in shares of WEX during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in WEX during the 3rd quarter worth about $35,000. State of Wyoming bought a new stake in shares of WEX in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of WEX by 108.4% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 248 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 129 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of WEX by 552.5% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 261 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. 97.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WEX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup cut WEX from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $260.00 to $190.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of WEX in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of WEX from $220.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of WEX from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of WEX from $200.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, WEX has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $187.80.

WEX Price Performance

Shares of WEX traded down $0.63 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $154.69. 1,311,342 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 493,003. The company has a market cap of $6.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $162.27 and its 200 day moving average is $179.13. WEX has a fifty-two week low of $146.03 and a fifty-two week high of $244.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.07.

WEX (NYSE:WEX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The business services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.16. WEX had a net margin of 11.78% and a return on equity of 32.35%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that WEX will post 14.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

WEX Company Profile

WEX Inc operates a commerce platform in the United States and internationally. The Mobility segment offers fleet vehicle payment solutions, transaction processing, and information management services; and provides account activation and account retention services; authorization and billing inquiries, and account maintenance services; account management; credit and collections services; merchant services; analytics solutions; and ancillary services and offerings.