American Eagle Outfitters Targets Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:AEO)

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO – Get a Free Report ) saw unusually high options trading on Tuesday. Equity investors bought 12,254 call options on the stock. This is a 105% increase from the average daily volume of 5,988 call options.

Analyst upgrades and downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on AEO. Telsey Advisory Group restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of American Eagle Outfitters in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on American Eagle Outfitters from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised American Eagle Outfitters from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. American Eagle Outfitters has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.00, according to MarketBeat.com.

Check out our latest stock report on AEO

American Eagle Outfitters Stock Performance

American Eagle Outfitters stock opened at $22.70 on Wednesday. American Eagle Outfitters has a 52-week low of $14.39 and a 52-week high of $26.44. The stock has a market cap of $4.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. The stock has a fifty-day moving average of $20.78 and a 200-day moving average of $22.43.

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO – Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 29th. The apparel retailer reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.06. American Eagle Outfitters had a return on equity of 19.39% and a net margin of 4.12%. The company had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.15 billion. In the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.17 EPS. American Eagle Outfitters’ revenue rose 5.8% year over year. On average, research analysts anticipate that American Eagle Outfitters will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

American Eagle Outfitters Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 12th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 12. This represents a dividend of $0.50 on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.20%. American Eagle Outfitters’ dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.05%.

Insider trading at American Eagle Outfitters

In other news, Director Cary D. Mcmillan sold 2,577 shares of American Eagle Outfitters stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.93, for a total transaction of $53,936.61. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available via this link. 7.30% of shares are currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge funds hurt American Eagle Outfitters

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AEO. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in American Eagle Outfitters by 299.7% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,207 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 905 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank purchased a new position in American Eagle Outfitters during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in American Eagle Outfitters by 6,980.0% in the fourth quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,416 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 1,396 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in American Eagle Outfitters by 40.5% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,080 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in American Eagle Outfitters in the first quarter worth approximately $59,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.33% of the company’s shares.

About American Eagle Outfitters

(Get a free report)

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc operates as a multi-brand specialty retailer in the United States and internationally. The company provides jeans, apparel and accessories and personal care products for women and men under the American Eagle brand; and intimates, apparel, activewear and swim collections under the Aerie and OFFLINE brands by Aerie.

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