i3 Verticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IIIV) Short Interest Up 20.1% in January

i3 Verticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IIIV - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 911,300 shares, a growth of 20.1% from the January 15th total of 758,500 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 267,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.4 days. Approximately 4.2% of the company's stock are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on IIIV. DA Davidson raised their target price on i3 Verticals from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on i3 Verticals from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Benchmark reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $33.00 price objective on shares of i3 Verticals in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on i3 Verticals from $22.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on i3 Verticals from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, i3 Verticals presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $29.86.

i3 Verticals Stock Performance

NASDAQ:IIIV traded down $0.83 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $28.67. The stock had a trading volume of 204,606 shares, compared to its average volume of 282,763. i3 Verticals has a 52 week low of $18.75 and a 52 week high of $29.80. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $24.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $948.12 million, a PE ratio of 6.39 and a beta of 1.51.

i3 Verticals (NASDAQ:IIIV - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.05). i3 Verticals had a net margin of 41.85% and a return on equity of 3.36%. Equities research analysts predict that i3 Verticals will post 0.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Frederick Stanford sold 17,577 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.28, for a total transaction of $444,346.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 100,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,528,000. This trade represents a 14.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 59.07% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On i3 Verticals

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Royce & Associates LP increased its position in shares of i3 Verticals by 11.1% during the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 488,840 shares of the company's stock valued at $10,417,000 after purchasing an additional 48,840 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of i3 Verticals by 112.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,036 shares of the company's stock valued at $873,000 after purchasing an additional 21,709 shares during the last quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of i3 Verticals during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $11,373,000. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of i3 Verticals by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 495,943 shares of the company's stock valued at $10,569,000 after purchasing an additional 2,664 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Long Path Partners LP boosted its holdings in i3 Verticals by 61.5% during the 3rd quarter. Long Path Partners LP now owns 933,098 shares of the company's stock valued at $19,884,000 after acquiring an additional 355,392 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.22% of the company's stock.

i3 Verticals Company Profile

i3 Verticals, Inc provides integrated payment and software solutions primarily to the public sector and healthcare markets in the United States. It operates in two segments, Software and Services, and Merchant Services. The company offers payment processing services that enables upper and lower court case management, collections, finance and accounting, motor vehicle and carrier registration, e-filing and taxation, license plate inventory, property tax management, utility billing, professional licensing, document workflow, and law enforcement software; assists public schools in completing payment processing functions, including accepting payments for online or at school lunches, and school activities.