Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK) Short Interest Down 19.3% in December

Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totaling 1,148,415 shares, a drop of 19.3% from the December 15th total of 1,422,927 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 271,781 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.2 days. Currently, 4.8% of the company’s shares are short sold. Currently, 4.8% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 271,781 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.2 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on SSTK shares. Zacks Research cut shares of Shutterstock from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, December 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Shutterstock in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Shutterstock from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Shutterstock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $25.00.

Shutterstock Stock Down 2.0%

NYSE:SSTK opened at $18.04 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.53. Shutterstock has a 1-year low of $14.35 and a 1-year high of $32.20. The company has a 50-day moving average of $19.35 and a 200 day moving average of $20.69. The firm has a market cap of $640.75 million, a PE ratio of 10.74 and a beta of 1.27.

Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The business services provider reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.48). Shutterstock had a net margin of 5.89% and a return on equity of 16.30%. The business had revenue of $260.09 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $255.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.31 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Shutterstock will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Shutterstock Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were issued a dividend of $0.33 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.3%. Shutterstock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 78.57%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Callodine Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Shutterstock during the second quarter worth about $7,835,000. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Shutterstock by 109.3% during the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 626,615 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $11,674,000 after purchasing an additional 327,203 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its stake in Shutterstock by 72.7% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 547,241 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $11,410,000 after purchasing an additional 230,413 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Shutterstock by 23.4% in the third quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. now owns 902,461 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $18,816,000 after buying an additional 171,375 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Shutterstock by 117.2% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 284,559 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,395,000 after buying an additional 153,575 shares during the last quarter. 82.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Shutterstock

Shutterstock, Inc (NYSE:SSTK) operates a leading global creative platform that provides royalty-free stock content to businesses, marketing agencies and media outlets. Its primary offerings include high-resolution photographs, vector graphics, illustrations, video footage and music tracks, all available through subscription plans or on-demand licensing. The platform also features customizable design tools and collaborative workspaces that enable customers to create and manage visual content more efficiently.

Founded in 2003 by Jon Oringer, Shutterstock began as an online marketplace offering a modest selection of images and quickly scaled its library to hundreds of millions of assets.