Investors Purchase Large Volume of Barclays Call Options (NYSE:BCS)

Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders acquired 5,887 call options on the company. This is an increase of 117% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,709 call options.

Institutional Trading of Barclays

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Management Professionals Inc. purchased a new stake in Barclays during the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in shares of Barclays during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Activest Wealth Management bought a new position in Barclays in the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new position in Barclays in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Barclays by 135.5% during the 4th quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 2,916 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 1,678 shares during the period. 3.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on BCS shares. StockNews.com lowered Barclays from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. BNP Paribas upgraded Barclays from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Barclays Stock Performance

Shares of BCS stock traded up $0.42 during trading on Monday, hitting $14.36. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,098,374 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,707,046. The business has a fifty day moving average of $15.14 and a 200-day moving average of $13.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.33. Barclays has a 52 week low of $8.95 and a 52 week high of $16.34. The company has a market cap of $51.63 billion, a PE ratio of 7.80, a P/E/G ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 1.11.

Barclays (NYSE:BCS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.15. Barclays had a return on equity of 7.74% and a net margin of 20.81%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Barclays will post 2 earnings per share for the current year.

Barclays Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 4th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a $0.2737 dividend. This is an increase from Barclays’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a yield of 2.7%. Barclays’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.89%.

Barclays Company Profile

Barclays PLC provides various financial services in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The company operates through Barclays UK and Barclays International division segments. It offers financial services, such as retail banking, credit cards, wholesale banking, investment banking, wealth management, and investment management services.