Short Interest in The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (NYSE:GBX) Decreases By 6.2%

The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (NYSE:GBX) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,130,000 shares, a drop of 6.2% from the December 15th total of 2,270,000 shares. Approximately 7.1% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 316,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.7 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on GBX shares. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Greenbrier Companies from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Greenbrier Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Greenbrier Companies has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Ricardo Galvan sold 4,950 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $321,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 27,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,785,680. This represents a 15.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO William J. Krueger sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.78, for a total transaction of $117,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 48,714 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,863,408.92. The trade was a 3.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 12,703 shares of company stock worth $790,338. Company insiders own 1.78% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Greenbrier Companies

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Greenbrier Companies by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 197,300 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $12,033,000 after buying an additional 12,600 shares during the last quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Greenbrier Companies by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,859 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $845,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. increased its holdings in Greenbrier Companies by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. now owns 19,675 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,200,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Greenbrier Companies by 3.1% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 18,858 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $990,000 after purchasing an additional 562 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Greenbrier Companies by 27.9% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 5,454 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $278,000 after buying an additional 1,190 shares during the last quarter. 95.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Greenbrier Companies Trading Up 0.5 %

GBX traded up $0.31 during trading on Friday, reaching $66.85. 663,412 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 292,397. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Greenbrier Companies has a one year low of $41.40 and a one year high of $69.12. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $64.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.10 billion, a PE ratio of 11.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.54.

Greenbrier Companies (NYSE:GBX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The transportation company reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by $0.56. The company had revenue of $875.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $849.51 million. Greenbrier Companies had a return on equity of 12.10% and a net margin of 5.10%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.96 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Greenbrier Companies will post 5.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Greenbrier Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 29th. Greenbrier Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.94%.

About Greenbrier Companies

The Greenbrier Companies, Inc designs, manufactures, and markets railroad freight car equipment in North America, Europe, and South America. It operates through three segments: Manufacturing; Maintenance Services; and Leasing & Management Services. The Manufacturing segment offers covered hopper cars, gondolas, open top hoppers, boxcars, center partition cars, tank cars, sustainable conversions, double-stack railcars, auto-max ii, multi-max, and multi-max plus products, intermodal cars, automobile transport, coil steel and metals, flat cars, sliding wall cars, pressurized tank cars, and non-pressurized tank cars.