Assessing the Bearish Sentiment in the Series

By Ken Smith • Monday, September 22 15:24 • Permanent Link

Tumbling to a price of $35.52 during today's afternoon trading session, shares of Series are now -23.02% below their average target price of $46.15. Does this mean the stock will reverse course? Analysts are giving AS an average rating of buy and target prices ranging from 38.0 to 58.0 dollars per share.

We can use Series'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 AS's short interest is 7.9%, 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.

We can make inferences about the market sentiment surrounding Series by analyzing its rate of institutional ownership. If institutions such as hedge funds and pension funds are the primary shareholders of a corporation, it most likely means that its shares are a good investment according to those institutions' analysts.

At 32.0%, the rate of institutional ownership is average, indicating that a sufficient number of institutions have concluded that it is a stable investment. Beware, however, that the rate of institutional ownership could also indicate an ongoing proxy battle or takeover attempt -- so you should also periodically check the news about a stock whose institutional ownership you are tracking.

Overall, there is positive market sentiment towards Series because of an analyst consensus of strong upside potential, a buy rating, an average amount of shares sold short, and only a small 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 AS:

It has trailing 12 month earnings per share (EPS) of $0.41 per share
Series has a trailing 12 month Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio of 86.6 while the S&P 500 average is 29.3
The company has a Price to Book (P/B) ratio of 3.58 in contrast to the S&P 500's average ratio of 4.74
Series is a Consumer Discretionary company, and the sector average P/E and P/B ratios are 20.93 and 2.93 respectively

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.