Getty Images Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:GETY) Short Interest Up 23.0% in March

Getty Images Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:GETY - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 8,010,000 shares, an increase of 23.0% from the March 15th total of 6,510,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,780,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days. Approximately 7.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Getty Images Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GETY traded down $0.06 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $1.84. 616,761 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,154,068. Getty Images has a one year low of $1.25 and a one year high of $4.49. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $1.96 and a 200 day moving average of $2.65. The company has a market cap of $759.13 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.33 and a beta of 2.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Getty Images (NYSE:GETY - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 17th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.04 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $247.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $245.50 million. Getty Images had a return on equity of 6.42% and a net margin of 5.91%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Getty Images will post 0.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GETY. Benchmark reduced their price target on Getty Images from $6.00 to $4.50 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $7.70 target price on shares of Getty Images in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $2.45 price target on shares of Getty Images in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Macquarie reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $3.75 price objective on shares of Getty Images in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $4.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Getty Images news, CEO Craig Warren Peters sold 124,624 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.12, for a total transaction of $264,202.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,262,948 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,677,449.76. This represents a 8.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Cho Mikael sold 18,590 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.12, for a total transaction of $39,410.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 123,862 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $262,587.44. This represents a 13.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 226,668 shares of company stock valued at $480,536 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Koch Inc. bought a new position in shares of Getty Images during the fourth quarter worth $174,385,000. Toronto Dominion Bank purchased a new position in shares of Getty Images during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,553,000. Wexford Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of Getty Images in the fourth quarter worth about $80,000. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Getty Images by 49.0% during the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 28,255 shares of the company's stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 9,297 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Occudo Quantitative Strategies LP purchased a new position in Getty Images during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $168,000. 45.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Getty Images Company Profile

Getty Images Holdings, Inc offers creative and editorial visual content solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Its products include Getty Images that offers creative and editorial content including stills, music and video which focuses on corporate, agency, and media customers; iStock.com, an e-commerce offering where customers have access to creative stills and video; Unsplash.com, a platform offering free stock photo downloads and paid subscriptions targeted to the high-growth prosumer and semi-professional creator segments; and Unsplash+ that provides access to unique model released content with expanded legal protections.