Fluor Co. (NYSE:FLR) Short Interest Up 5.2% in December

Fluor Co. (NYSE:FLR – Get Rating) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 30th, there was short interest totalling 17,310,000 shares, an increase of 5.2% from the December 15th total of 16,460,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,510,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 11.5 days. Currently, 12.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Fluor by 3.5% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 16,937,750 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $485,943,000 after buying an additional 571,316 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Fluor by 1.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,760,561 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $342,501,000 after buying an additional 210,592 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Fluor by 18.4% during the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,114,690 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $294,872,000 after buying an additional 1,883,043 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Fluor by 4.3% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,756,643 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $136,468,000 after buying an additional 195,913 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rubric Capital Management LP lifted its position in Fluor by 13.5% during the third quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 3,300,000 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $82,137,000 after buying an additional 393,131 shares in the last quarter. 94.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fluor Price Performance

FLR opened at $36.85 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a current ratio of 1.55. Fluor has a 1 year low of $19.80 and a 1 year high of $36.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.24 billion, a PE ratio of -78.40, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 2.33.

Fluor (NYSE:FLR – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 4th. The construction company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.48 by ($0.41). Fluor had a positive return on equity of 7.74% and a negative net margin of 0.19%. The company had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.23 earnings per share. Fluor’s revenue was up 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Fluor will post 0.87 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Fluor from $32.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Monday, November 14th. DA Davidson upgraded shares of Fluor from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $25.00 to $40.00 in a report on Monday, November 7th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Fluor from $28.00 to $33.00 in a report on Sunday, November 6th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Fluor in a report on Wednesday, October 12th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Credit Suisse Group lifted their price target on shares of Fluor from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.29.

About Fluor

(Get Rating)

Fluor Corporation provides engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC); fabrication and modularization; operation and maintenance; asset integrity; and project management services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Energy Solutions, Urban Solutions, Mission Solutions, and Other. The Energy Solutions provides solutions to the energy transition markets, including asset decarbonization, carbon capture, renewable fuels, waste-to-energy, green chemicals, hydrogen, nuclear power, and other low-carbon energy sources.