Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:KEYS) Short Interest Update

Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:KEYS) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,480,000 shares, an increase of 13.7% from the February 29th total of 3,060,000 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,190,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Kailash Narayanan sold 4,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.88, for a total transaction of $657,384.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,156 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,457,369.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Keysight Technologies by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,348,229 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,214,409,000 after purchasing an additional 153,857 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Keysight Technologies by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,029,013 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,344,458,000 after purchasing an additional 150,464 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Keysight Technologies by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,264,113 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $688,569,000 after purchasing an additional 302,273 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Keysight Technologies by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 3,912,631 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $513,728,000 after purchasing an additional 136,818 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Keysight Technologies by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,681,799 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $593,185,000 after purchasing an additional 66,008 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Keysight Technologies from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $184.00 to $170.00 in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays increased their price objective on Keysight Technologies from $134.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. TheStreet upgraded Keysight Technologies from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 13th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Keysight Technologies from $157.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Keysight Technologies has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $160.63.

Keysight Technologies Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of KEYS traded down $1.25 on Tuesday, reaching $153.75. The stock had a trading volume of 991,633 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,224,923. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.17 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 1.93. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $154.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $144.07. Keysight Technologies has a 12-month low of $118.57 and a 12-month high of $172.72.

Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. Keysight Technologies had a return on equity of 26.84% and a net margin of 18.14%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.72 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Keysight Technologies will post 5.39 EPS for the current year.

About Keysight Technologies

Keysight Technologies, Inc provides electronic design and test solutions to commercial communications, networking, aerospace, defense and government, automotive, energy, semiconductor, electronic, and education industries in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Communications Solutions Group and Electronic Industrial Solutions Group.