Green Dot Co. (NYSE:GDOT) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Green Dot Co. (NYSE:GDOT - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,580,000 shares, a growth of 6.8% from the September 15th total of 1,480,000 shares. Currently, 3.1% of the company's shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 435,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.6 days.

Insider Activity at Green Dot

In other Green Dot news, major shareholder Topline Capital Partners, Lp bought 162,243 shares of Green Dot stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $11.87 per share, for a total transaction of $1,925,824.41. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 6,157,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $73,091,483.55. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Green Dot news, major shareholder Topline Capital Partners, Lp bought 162,243 shares of Green Dot stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $11.87 per share, for a total transaction of $1,925,824.41. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 6,157,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $73,091,483.55. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Topline Capital Management, Ll bought 36,671 shares of Green Dot stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $12.49 per share, for a total transaction of $458,020.79. Following the purchase, the insider now owns 5,995,422 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $74,882,820.78. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Green Dot

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Quadrature Capital Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Green Dot by 111.7% in the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 62,681 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $621,000 after acquiring an additional 33,068 shares during the last quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Green Dot during the first quarter worth $139,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in Green Dot by 41.4% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 157,703 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,471,000 after buying an additional 46,179 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its stake in Green Dot by 10.3% during the first quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 73,271 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $684,000 after buying an additional 6,866 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in Green Dot by 8.2% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 155,400 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,450,000 after buying an additional 11,725 shares during the last quarter. 92.56% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Green Dot Stock Up 3.1 %

Shares of NYSE:GDOT traded up $0.35 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $11.70. The stock had a trading volume of 314,040 shares, compared to its average volume of 557,834. Green Dot has a 12-month low of $7.30 and a 12-month high of $12.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $622.56 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.89 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.97.

Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The financial services provider reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $407.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $381.87 million. Green Dot had a positive return on equity of 4.01% and a negative net margin of 3.41%. Green Dot's quarterly revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.20 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Green Dot will post 1 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GDOT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on Green Dot from $7.00 to $10.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and set a $11.00 price objective on shares of Green Dot in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Craig Hallum raised their price objective on Green Dot from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $10.75.

About Green Dot

Green Dot Corporation, a financial technology and registered bank holding company, provides various financial services to consumers and businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Consumer Services, Business to Business Services, and Money Movement Services. The company provides deposit account programs, including consumer and small business checking account products, network-branded reloadable prepaid debit cards and gift cards, and secured credit programs.

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