Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK) Short Interest Down 42.7% in April

Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totaling 1,025,874 shares, a drop of 42.7% from the April 15th total of 1,790,012 shares. Currently, 4.1% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 243,018 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.2 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Zacks Research raised Shutterstock from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Weiss Ratings cut Shutterstock from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Shutterstock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Shutterstock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shutterstock

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new position in shares of Shutterstock during the first quarter valued at approximately $180,000. Callodine Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Shutterstock by 23.0% during the first quarter. Callodine Capital Management LP now owns 1,272,139 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $21,130,000 after purchasing an additional 238,176 shares during the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Shutterstock by 7.3% during the first quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 733,662 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $12,186,000 after purchasing an additional 50,200 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Shutterstock by 6.5% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 427,114 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,094,000 after purchasing an additional 26,144 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Shutterstock by 14.5% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 157,490 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after purchasing an additional 19,890 shares during the last quarter. 82.79% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Shutterstock Stock Up 0.8%

Shutterstock stock traded up $0.13 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $16.65. 374,108 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 271,996. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $16.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company has a market cap of $611.65 million, a PE ratio of -28.70 and a beta of 1.10. Shutterstock has a one year low of $14.36 and a one year high of $29.50.

Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 17th. The business services provider reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.38). The firm had revenue of $220.22 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $252.28 million. Shutterstock had a negative net margin of 2.19% and a positive return on equity of 14.12%. The business’s revenue was down 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.67 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Shutterstock will post 2.73 EPS for the current year.

Shutterstock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. Shutterstock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -248.28%.

About Shutterstock

Shutterstock, Inc (NYSE:SSTK) operates a leading global creative platform that provides royalty-free stock content to businesses, marketing agencies and media outlets. Its primary offerings include high-resolution photographs, vector graphics, illustrations, video footage and music tracks, all available through subscription plans or on-demand licensing. The platform also features customizable design tools and collaborative workspaces that enable customers to create and manage visual content more efficiently.

Founded in 2003 by Jon Oringer, Shutterstock began as an online marketplace offering a modest selection of images and quickly scaled its library to hundreds of millions of assets.