Peabody Energy Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:BTU)

Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE:BTU) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders purchased 23,312 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 83% compared to the average daily volume of 12,706 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Peabody Energy by 265,937.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 8,023,686 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $212,949,000 after buying an additional 8,020,670 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Peabody Energy by 7.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,631,707 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $202,546,000 after acquiring an additional 540,219 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Peabody Energy by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,346,729 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $153,841,000 after acquiring an additional 88,466 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Peabody Energy by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,785,337 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $79,265,000 after purchasing an additional 215,614 shares during the period. Finally, Progeny 3 Inc. raised its position in Peabody Energy by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Progeny 3 Inc. now owns 3,620,014 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $75,803,000 after purchasing an additional 40,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BTU. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Peabody Energy from $30.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Benchmark cut their price target on Peabody Energy from $30.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded Peabody Energy from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $26.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th.

Peabody Energy Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE:BTU opened at $13.33 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.94 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.15 and a quick ratio of 1.68. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $16.38 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.34. Peabody Energy has a one year low of $12.15 and a one year high of $29.94.

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The coal producer reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.25). Peabody Energy had a net margin of 8.75% and a return on equity of 10.33%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Peabody Energy will post 2.61 EPS for the current year.

Peabody Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.25%. Peabody Energy’s payout ratio is 11.11%.

Peabody Energy Company Profile

Peabody Energy Corporation engages in coal mining business in the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, India, Brazil, Belgium, Chile, France, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, South Korea, Germany, and internationally. The company operates through Seaborne Thermal, Seaborne Metallurgical, Powder River Basin, Other U.S.