Why Are Shares of YETI (YETI) Down Today?

One of the standouts of today's morning trading session has been YETI, which logged a -1.1% drop and underperformed the S&P 500 by -1.4%. The Leisure stock is now trading at $39.47 per share and is -26.03% below its average target price of $53.36. Analysts have set target prices ranging from $43 to $75 dollars per share, and have given the stock an average rating of buy.

We can use YETI's short interest as a proxy for determining general market sentiment regarding the stock. The short interest is the percentage of the share float that represents short positions, meaning that the investor believes the stock will decline in the future. Since YETI's short interest is 8.7%, the market sentiment is mixed on this stock.

When a stock is sold short, it means an investor has borrowed shares of the stock from their broker, and then sold them at the going market price. The investor hopes for the price to decline, so that they might buy those shares back at a lower price in the future. Once they do, they can return the borrowed shares to their broker, and keep the profit they made on the transaction.

Another way to gauge the sentiment on YETI is to look at the percentage of institutions that are invested in the stock. In this case, 101.6% of the shares are held by pension, mutual, and hedge funds, which shows that these institutions probably have strong confidence in the stock.

Institutions have vast resources. If institutions are invested in a particular stock, it shows in most cases that they have performed quality research and concluded that it is a good investment. In some cases, however, increases in institutional ownership could be a sign of a takeover attempt or proxy fight, which can actually injure share prices. Also, institutions are not infallible, and can certainly make miscalculations -- often with spectacular results.

Overall, there is exuberant market sentiment towards YETI because of its an analyst consensus of strong upside potential, a buy rating, an average amount of shares sold short, and a significant number of institutional investors. Investors should not base their decisions on market sentiment only, they should also be aware of a stock's fundamentals before committing.

At a glance, here are some essential statistics you may want to know about YETI:

  • It has trailing 12 month earnings per share (Eps) of $2.16 per share

  • YETI has a trailing 12 month Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio of 18.3 while the S&P 500 average is 15.97

  • The company has a Price to Book (P/B) ratio of 6.8 in contrast to the S&P 500's average ratio of 2.95

  • YETI is a Consumer Cyclical company, and the sector average P/E and P/B ratios are 24.11 and 3.11 respectively

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The above analysis is intended for educational purposes only and was performed on the basis of publicly available data. It is not to be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Any buy, sell, or other recommendations mentioned in the article are direct quotations of consensus recommendations from the analysts covering the stock, and do not represent the opinions of Market Inference or its writers. Past performance, accounting data, and inferences about market position and corporate valuation are not reliable indicators of future price movements. Market Inference does not provide financial advice. Investors should conduct their own review and analysis of any company of interest before making an investment decision.

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