Autohome Inc. (NYSE: ATHM – Get a rating) benefited from a significant increase in short-term interest during the month of July. As of July 15, there was short interest totaling 1,960,000 shares, an increase of 39.0% from the June 30 total of 1,410,000 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 695,300 shares, the day-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Institutional investors weigh in on Autohome

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently changed their positions in the stock. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its position in Autohome by 47.1% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 3,234 shares of the information services provider worth $95,000 after purchasing an additional 1,035 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its position in Autohome by 6.8% in Q4. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 159,848 shares of the information services provider worth $4,712,000 after purchasing an additional 10,135 shares during the period. KBC Group NV strengthened its position in Autohome by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 164,101 shares of the information services provider worth $4,838,000 after purchasing an additional 2,194 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in Autohome shares by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 166,764 shares of the information services provider worth $4,916,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares during the period. Finally, Advisor Group Holdings Inc. increased its position in Autohome shares by 131.2% in the 4th quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 9,819 shares of the information services provider worth $291,000 after purchasing an additional 5,572 shares during the period. 51.44% of the shares are held by institutional investors.

A Wall Street analyst gives his opinion

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The ATHM has been the subject of several research reports. Daiwa Capital Markets launched a hedge on Autohome shares in a Tuesday, July 12 research note. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Citigroup raised its price target on Autohome shares from $33.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a Tuesday, June 28 research note. Finally, CLSA upgraded Autohome shares from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised its target price for the stock from $29.30 to $42.50 in a note. research on Tuesday, July 26. One equity research analyst rated the stock with a sell rating, three gave the company a hold rating and five gave the company a buy rating. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.69.

Autohome Trading down 2.3%

ATHM stock was down $0.84 at midday on Friday, hitting $35.69. The stock had a trading volume of 908,093 shares, compared to an average volume of 788,408. Autohome has a 52-week low of $20.49 and a 52-week high of $52.34. The company has a market capitalization of $4.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.86 and a beta of 0.16. The company has a fifty-day simple moving average of $35.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.44.

Autohome (NYSE:ATHM- Get a rating) last announced its quarterly results on Tuesday, May 24. The information services provider reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.50 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.05. The company posted revenue of $232.10 million for the quarter, versus analyst estimates of $215.41 million. Autohome had a net margin of 26.48% and a return on equity of 10.12%. The company’s revenue was down 17.4% year over year. During the same period a year earlier, the company posted EPS of $0.92. As a group, stock analysts expect Autohome to post 2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Auto-Home

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Autohome Inc operates as an online destination for automobile consumers in the People’s Republic of China. The company provides interactive content and tools to automotive consumers through its three websites, autohome.com.cn, che168.com and ttpai.cn on PCs, mobile devices, mobile apps and mini-apps.

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