Ultrapar Participacoes S.A. (NYSE:UGP) Short Interest Up 98.3% in May

Ultrapar Participacoes S.A. (NYSE:UGP) was the target of a large increase in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totaling 3,879,904 shares, an increase of 98.3% from the April 30th total of 1,956,501 shares. Currently, 0.4% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 3,140,955 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.2 days.

Institutional Trading of Ultrapar Participacoes

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Parvin Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Ultrapar Participacoes by 11.6% during the 1st quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 185,750 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,023,000 after acquiring an additional 19,350 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Ultrapar Participacoes by 45.0% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,383 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 1,982 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in shares of Ultrapar Participacoes by 165.5% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 12,390 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 7,724 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Ultrapar Participacoes by 10.6% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,740,700 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $20,611,000 after buying an additional 357,922 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Ultrapar Participacoes by 235.7% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 927,216 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $5,109,000 after buying an additional 650,988 shares in the last quarter. 3.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on UGP. Wall Street Zen raised Ultrapar Participacoes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. UBS Group began coverage on Ultrapar Participacoes in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $7.00 price objective for the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ultrapar Participacoes from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $3.10 to $5.60 in a research report on Friday, March 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Ultrapar Participacoes from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $5.40 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Ultrapar Participacoes from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $6.00.

Ultrapar Participacoes Stock Down 2.0%

UGP opened at $5.08 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $5.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The company has a market cap of $5.66 billion, a PE ratio of 10.15, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 0.71. Ultrapar Participacoes has a 52 week low of $2.80 and a 52 week high of $6.20.

Ultrapar Participacoes (NYSE:UGP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, February 14th. The oil and gas company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $6.19 billion during the quarter. Ultrapar Participacoes had a return on equity of 16.54% and a net margin of 2.04%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ultrapar Participacoes will post 0.58 EPS for the current year.

About Ultrapar Participacoes

Ultrapar Participações SA is a Brazilian diversified holding company operating in the downstream energy and chemical sectors. Its Ipiranga unit runs one of Brazil’s largest networks of fuel stations, supplying gasoline, ethanol, diesel and convenience-store products to retail and wholesale customers. Through Ultragaz, the company is a leading distributor of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), offering cylinder and bulk gas solutions for residential, commercial and industrial use across urban and rural regions.

In the specialty chemicals arena, Ultrapar controls Oxiteno, which produces surfactants and specialty chemical formulations for industries such as personal care, oil and gas, agrochemicals and coatings.