Usio, Inc. (NASDAQ:USIO) Short Interest Up 149.1% in March

Usio, Inc. (NASDAQ:USIO) was the target of a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 78,700 shares, a growth of 149.1% from the March 15th total of 31,600 shares. Currently, 0.5% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 349,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.2 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Usio

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in USIO. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Usio by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 479,383 shares of the company’s stock worth $700,000 after purchasing an additional 97,442 shares in the last quarter. Integrity Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Usio in the 4th quarter worth approximately $139,000. Perkins Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Usio by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Perkins Capital Management Inc. now owns 995,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,454,000 after acquiring an additional 13,500 shares in the last quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc lifted its position in Usio by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 478,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $698,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Usio by 5.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 182,116 shares of the company’s stock valued at $248,000 after acquiring an additional 9,731 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 20.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $4.00 price target on shares of Usio in a research note on Thursday, March 27th.

Usio Price Performance

Shares of USIO opened at $1.46 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.71 million, a PE ratio of 16.22 and a beta of 1.75. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $1.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $1.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10. Usio has a fifty-two week low of $1.24 and a fifty-two week high of $2.92.

Usio (NASDAQ:USIO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.01. Usio had a negative return on equity of 2.98% and a net margin of 3.33%. The company had revenue of $20.56 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.10 million. Equities analysts predict that Usio will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Usio Company Profile

Usio, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated electronic payment processing services to merchants and businesses in the United States. The company offers various types of automated clearing house (ACH) processing; and credit, prepaid card, and debit card-based processing services. Its ACH transaction processing services include Represented Check and Check Conversion for electronic payment facilitation.