Short Interest in KE Holdings Inc. (NYSE:BEKE) Grows By 27.6%

KE Holdings Inc. (NYSE:BEKE) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 20,070,000 shares, an increase of 27.6% from the March 31st total of 15,730,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 7,580,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Institutional Trading of KE

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Signaturefd LLC increased its position in shares of KE by 11.2% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 9,747 shares of the company’s stock valued at $151,000 after buying an additional 985 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of KE by 90.4% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 3,304 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 1,569 shares in the last quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA increased its position in shares of KE by 0.5% in the third quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA now owns 392,330 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,089,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. Dodge & Cox increased its position in shares of KE by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 38,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $623,000 after buying an additional 2,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd increased its position in shares of KE by 26.5% in the fourth quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 12,326 shares of the company’s stock valued at $199,000 after buying an additional 2,585 shares in the last quarter. 39.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BEKE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $21.10 price target on shares of KE in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. HSBC decreased their target price on KE from $23.90 to $21.80 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th.

KE Trading Up 7.4 %

Shares of NYSE:BEKE opened at $14.83 on Friday. KE has a 12-month low of $12.44 and a 12-month high of $19.95. The company has a market capitalization of $18.29 billion, a PE ratio of 21.49, a PEG ratio of 0.37 and a beta of -0.73. The business has a 50 day moving average of $13.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $14.56.

KE (NYSE:BEKE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.03. KE had a return on equity of 9.19% and a net margin of 7.62%. The company had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.66 billion. Equities research analysts predict that KE will post 0.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th were given a $0.351 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 4th. KE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.93%.

About KE

KE Holdings Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in operating an integrated online and offline platform for housing transactions and services in the People's Republic of China. It operates through four segments: Existing Home Transaction Services, New Home Transaction Services, Home Renovation and Furnishing, and Emerging and Other Services.