Short Interest in Gladstone Land Co. (NASDAQ:LAND) Expands By 16.6%

Gladstone Land Co. (NASDAQ:LAND) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 781,700 shares, an increase of 16.6% from the December 15th total of 670,500 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 273,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Alliance Global Partners lowered shares of Gladstone Land from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $16.00 to $14.50 in a report on Friday, November 8th.

Gladstone Land Price Performance

Gladstone Land stock traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $10.77. 268,825 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 312,437. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $11.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $12.98. Gladstone Land has a 52-week low of $10.27 and a 52-week high of $15.36. The company has a market cap of $389.77 million, a P/E ratio of -41.42, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.70.

Gladstone Land Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th will be paid a $0.0467 dividend. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. Gladstone Land’s dividend payout ratio is currently -215.38%.

Institutional Trading of Gladstone Land

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LAND. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Gladstone Land by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 900,632 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,521,000 after acquiring an additional 13,217 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Gladstone Land by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 795,775 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $11,061,000 after buying an additional 16,079 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in shares of Gladstone Land by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 251,838 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,501,000 after buying an additional 9,143 shares in the last quarter. Marathon Capital Management lifted its position in Gladstone Land by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Marathon Capital Management now owns 154,271 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,112,000 after buying an additional 781 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Gladstone Land by 62.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 139,298 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,936,000 after buying an additional 53,400 shares in the last quarter. 53.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Gladstone Land

Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion.