Capital One Financial Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:COF)

Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE:COF) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders bought 24,489 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 150% compared to the typical volume of 9,800 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on COF. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Capital One Financial from $215.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. BTIG Research increased their target price on shares of Capital One Financial from $224.00 to $259.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. HSBC raised shares of Capital One Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $226.00 to $229.00 in a research note on Sunday, July 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $245.00 price objective on shares of Capital One Financial in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their price target on Capital One Financial from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Twenty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Capital One Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $258.91.

Capital One Financial Trading Down 0.5%

NYSE:COF traded down $0.90 on Thursday, hitting $195.20. The stock had a trading volume of 1,564,162 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,713,738. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $212.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $198.55. Capital One Financial has a 1-year low of $174.24 and a 1-year high of $259.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The stock has a market cap of $119.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.09, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.02.

Capital One Financial (NYSE:COF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 21st. The financial services provider reported $5.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.79 by $1.02. The firm had revenue of $15.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.76 billion. Capital One Financial had a net margin of 13.37% and a return on equity of 11.28%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $5.48 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Capital One Financial will post 20.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Capital One Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 17th were paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 17th. Capital One Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 19.80%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Timothy P. Golden sold 3,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $211.00, for a total value of $735,757.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 7,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,567,519. This trade represents a 31.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ravi Raghu sold 9,726 shares of Capital One Financial stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.78, for a total value of $2,040,320.28. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 26,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,523,087.84. The trade was a 26.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,850 shares of company stock worth $7,208,382. Company insiders own 0.78% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Capital One Financial

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Capital One Financial by 107.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 57,278,732 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,491,259,000 after buying an additional 29,724,829 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Capital One Financial in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,089,803,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in shares of Capital One Financial in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,435,311,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of Capital One Financial during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $680,983,000. Finally, Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new stake in Capital One Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $601,860,000. 89.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Capital One Financial Company Profile

Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) is a diversified financial services company headquartered in McLean, Virginia. Founded in 1994, the company initially built its business as a credit card issuer and has since expanded into consumer banking, commercial banking and payments.

Capital One offers a range of credit card products for consumers and businesses, along with deposit accounts, savings products, auto loans and other consumer lending services. Through its commercial banking operations, the company provides financing, treasury management and related services to commercial real estate clients, middle-market companies and other businesses.

Capital One primarily serves customers in the United States, with additional operations and financial services activities in Canada and the United Kingdom.