Short Interest in H World Group Limited Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:HTHT) Declines By 37.7%

H World Group Limited Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:HTHT) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totaling 9,379,589 shares, a decline of 37.7% from the April 30th total of 15,052,640 shares. Approximately 6.0% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,831,821 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.1 days.

Insider Transactions at H World Group

In related news, Director Theng Fong Hee sold 31,640 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.96, for a total value of $1,612,374.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 49.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On H World Group

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of HTHT. TD Private Client Wealth LLC bought a new position in H World Group in the fourth quarter worth about $45,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in H World Group by 81.0% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,450 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 649 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in shares of H World Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $66,000. Osaic Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in shares of H World Group by 889.5% during the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 2,266 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,000 after buying an additional 2,037 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of H World Group by 20.1% during the fourth quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 46.41% of the company’s stock.

H World Group Trading Down 0.1%

HTHT stock opened at $44.33 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $13.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.88, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.51. H World Group has a 52 week low of $30.41 and a 52 week high of $56.63.

H World Group (NASDAQ:HTHT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, February 14th. The company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $932.62 million during the quarter. H World Group had a return on equity of 39.73% and a net margin of 19.22%. On average, equities research analysts expect that H World Group will post 2.47 EPS for the current year.

H World Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 4th were paid a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 4th. This represents a dividend yield of 542.0%. H World Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 114.80%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Zacks Research upgraded H World Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. UBS Group raised H World Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $62.40 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Wall Street Zen raised H World Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday. Weiss Ratings lowered H World Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Benchmark increased their price target on H World Group from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, H World Group has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.20.

H World Group Company Profile

H World Group, formerly known as Huazhu Group, is a leading hotel management and franchising company primarily serving the China market. The company operates a broad portfolio of midscale to luxury hotel brands, including Hi Inn, Blossom, Manxin, Madison International, Joya, Grand Mercure, Novotel, Mercure and ibis. Through a network of both directly managed and franchised properties, H World Group caters to business and leisure travelers by offering consistent service standards and loyalty benefits across its brands.

In addition to its core hotel operations, H World Group provides technology-driven hospitality solutions such as centralized reservation systems, revenue management platforms and customer relationship management tools.