ChampionX Co. (NASDAQ:CHX) Short Interest Up 6.0% in October

ChampionX Co. (NASDAQ:CHX) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 8,120,000 shares, a growth of 6.0% from the October 15th total of 7,660,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,280,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.3 days. Currently, 4.2% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on CHX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of ChampionX from $37.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 14th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of ChampionX from $41.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 26th. Barclays raised shares of ChampionX from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $33.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of ChampionX from $42.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.50.

ChampionX Price Performance

ChampionX stock opened at $29.41 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 2.59. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.23. ChampionX has a 12-month low of $23.66 and a 12-month high of $38.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

ChampionX (NASDAQ:CHX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 24th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.49 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $939.78 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $966.78 million. ChampionX had a return on equity of 20.17% and a net margin of 8.02%. ChampionX’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that ChampionX will post 1.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ChampionX Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 5th will be given a dividend of $0.085 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 4th. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. ChampionX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.52%.

Insider Transactions at ChampionX

In other news, insider Deric D. Bryant sold 12,232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.24, for a total transaction of $431,055.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 305,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,753,803.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider Deric D. Bryant sold 12,232 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.24, for a total transaction of $431,055.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 305,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,753,803.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Deric D. Bryant sold 18,772 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.07, for a total transaction of $695,878.04. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 317,391 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,765,684.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.22% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ChampionX

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CHX. Congress Asset Management Co. MA raised its stake in ChampionX by 114.0% during the 3rd quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 4,172,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $148,615,000 after acquiring an additional 2,222,224 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its stake in ChampionX by 3,290.2% during the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,442,824 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,144,000 after acquiring an additional 1,400,265 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in ChampionX by 20.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,109,432 shares of the company’s stock worth $253,238,000 after acquiring an additional 1,193,122 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in ChampionX by 13.7% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 8,184,487 shares of the company’s stock worth $254,046,000 after acquiring an additional 988,872 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in ChampionX by 15.3% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,008,521 shares of the company’s stock worth $163,003,000 after acquiring an additional 799,459 shares in the last quarter. 98.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ChampionX Company Profile

ChampionX Corporation provides chemistry solutions, and engineered equipment and technologies to oil and gas companies worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Production Chemical Technologies, Production & Automation Technologies, Drilling Technologies, and Reservoir Chemical Technologies.