Traders Purchase Large Volume of Cameco Put Options (NYSE:CCJ)

Cameco Co. (NYSE:CCJ) (TSE:CCO) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 28,210 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 942% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,706 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Cameco by 15.5% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,036 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $868,000 after acquiring an additional 2,683 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cameco in the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Beck Bode LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cameco by 11.2% in the first quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 46,681 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,022,000 after purchasing an additional 4,689 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in shares of Cameco by 22.4% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 124,821 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,338,000 after purchasing an additional 22,820 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hamilton Wealth LLC increased its stake in Cameco by 76.3% during the 1st quarter. Hamilton Wealth LLC now owns 8,978 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $389,000 after buying an additional 3,886 shares during the period. 70.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on CCJ. Glj Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $63.73 price objective on shares of Cameco in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. National Bank Financial raised Cameco to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Janney Montgomery Scott raised shares of Cameco to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Cameco from $81.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cameco currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.56.

Cameco Stock Performance

NYSE CCJ opened at $57.81 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.88. The company has a current ratio of 2.88, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market cap of $25.16 billion, a PE ratio of 304.28 and a beta of 0.89. Cameco has a twelve month low of $35.43 and a twelve month high of $60.98.

Cameco (NYSE:CCJ) (TSE:CCO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The basic materials company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.39 by ($0.40). The company had revenue of $721.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $646.83 million. Cameco had a return on equity of 3.33% and a net margin of 4.15%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.24 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Cameco will post 0.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Cameco Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 27th will be given a $0.118 dividend. This is a positive change from Cameco’s previous annual dividend of $0.09. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 27th. This represents a yield of 0.22%. Cameco’s payout ratio is presently 63.16%.

About Cameco

Cameco Corporation provides uranium for the generation of electricity. It operates through Uranium, Fuel Services, Westinghouse segments. The Uranium segment is involved in the exploration for, mining, and milling, purchase, and sale of uranium concentrate. The Fuel Services segment engages in the refining, conversion, and fabrication of uranium concentrate, as well as the purchase and sale of conversion services.