Short Interest in CTO Realty Growth, Inc. (NYSE:CTO) Increases By 56.1%

CTO Realty Growth, Inc. (NYSE:CTO) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,220,000 shares, a growth of 56.1% from the October 15th total of 781,400 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 508,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CTO Realty Growth news, CEO John P. Albright sold 29,488 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.71, for a total value of $610,696.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 570,554 shares in the company, valued at $11,816,173.34. This represents a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Christopher W. Haga sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.19, for a total value of $57,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 44,988 shares in the company, valued at $863,319.72. The trade was a 6.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 35,488 shares of company stock worth $726,616. Corporate insiders own 5.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CTO Realty Growth

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of CTO. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. bought a new position in shares of CTO Realty Growth in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of CTO Realty Growth in the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in shares of CTO Realty Growth by 45.4% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,785 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 557 shares during the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of CTO Realty Growth in the 3rd quarter valued at $49,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of CTO Realty Growth by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,527 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 673 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.18% of the company’s stock.

CTO Realty Growth Price Performance

NYSE:CTO traded down $0.19 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $19.51. 434,207 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 250,102. The company has a market capitalization of $584.91 million, a P/E ratio of 33.07 and a beta of 0.76. CTO Realty Growth has a 1-year low of $16.16 and a 1-year high of $21.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 3.96 and a quick ratio of 3.96. The business has a 50 day moving average of $19.35 and a 200 day moving average of $18.62.

CTO Realty Growth (NYSE:CTO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by ($0.27). The business had revenue of $31.81 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.15 million. CTO Realty Growth had a net margin of 17.10% and a return on equity of 4.04%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.48 EPS. Research analysts forecast that CTO Realty Growth will post 1.79 EPS for the current year.

CTO Realty Growth Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 12th were issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 12th. CTO Realty Growth’s dividend payout ratio is presently 257.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on CTO shares. StockNews.com downgraded CTO Realty Growth from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Alliance Global Partners raised CTO Realty Growth to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Raymond James raised CTO Realty Growth from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $22.00 to $24.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.00.

About CTO Realty Growth

CTO Realty Growth, Inc is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns and operates a portfolio of high-quality, retail-based properties located primarily in higher growth markets in the United States. CTO also externally manages and owns a meaningful interest in Alpine Income Property Trust, Inc (NYSE: PINE), a publicly traded net lease REIT.