Kanzhun Limited (NASDAQ:BZ) Short Interest Up 72.8% in September

Kanzhun Limited (NASDAQ:BZ) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 14,910,000 shares, a growth of 72.8% from the August 31st total of 8,630,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 4,240,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.5 days. Currently, 4.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Kanzhun

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BZ. SIH Partners LLLP acquired a new position in Kanzhun in the 2nd quarter valued at about $282,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Kanzhun by 127.6% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,579,427 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,519,000 after purchasing an additional 1,446,033 shares in the last quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new stake in Kanzhun during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $308,000. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Kanzhun during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,705,000. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its position in Kanzhun by 17.8% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 104,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,958,000 after buying an additional 15,700 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.67% of the company’s stock.

Kanzhun Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BZ traded up $1.06 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $17.18. The company had a trading volume of 12,598,260 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,076,771. Kanzhun has a twelve month low of $10.57 and a twelve month high of $22.74. The stock has a market cap of $6.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.05 and a beta of 0.47. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $13.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.50.

Kanzhun (NASDAQ:BZ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $263.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $264.38 million. Kanzhun had a net margin of 20.90% and a return on equity of 10.19%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Kanzhun will post 0.47 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on BZ shares. Barclays lowered their price objective on Kanzhun from $27.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Daiwa Capital Markets lowered shares of Kanzhun from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Daiwa America upgraded shares of Kanzhun to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.40.

About Kanzhun

Kanzhun Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides online recruitment services in the People's Republic of China. The company offers its recruitment services through a mobile app under the BOSS Zhipin brand name. Its services allow enterprise customers to access and interact with job seekers and manage their recruitment process.