Norwegian Cruise Line Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:NCLH)

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NCLH) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 30,392 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 29% compared to the typical volume of 23,470 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Andrea Demarco sold 29,000 shares of Norwegian Cruise Line stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.76, for a total value of $805,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 97,304 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,701,159.04. This trade represents a 22.96 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Faye L. Ashby sold 38,344 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.30, for a total transaction of $1,046,791.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 116,270 shares in the company, valued at $3,174,171. This represents a 24.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 82,344 shares of company stock valued at $2,269,731. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Norwegian Cruise Line

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Norwegian Cruise Line by 4.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,241,984 shares of the company’s stock worth $312,613,000 after acquiring an additional 621,793 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Norwegian Cruise Line by 2.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,522,834 shares of the company’s stock worth $215,481,000 after buying an additional 261,925 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. purchased a new position in shares of Norwegian Cruise Line during the 3rd quarter worth about $179,146,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its stake in shares of Norwegian Cruise Line by 864.9% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,864,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,263,000 after buying an additional 3,464,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Norwegian Cruise Line by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,500,309 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,791,000 after acquiring an additional 94,178 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays upgraded shares of Norwegian Cruise Line from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $28.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Norwegian Cruise Line from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Norwegian Cruise Line from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Norwegian Cruise Line in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Norwegian Cruise Line from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Norwegian Cruise Line presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $29.27.

Norwegian Cruise Line Stock Performance

NCLH opened at $28.47 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $22.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.35, a current ratio of 0.20 and a quick ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $12.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 2.64. Norwegian Cruise Line has a 1-year low of $14.69 and a 1-year high of $28.73.

Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:NCLH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. Norwegian Cruise Line had a net margin of 5.87% and a return on equity of 99.31%. Norwegian Cruise Line’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Norwegian Cruise Line will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Norwegian Cruise Line Company Profile

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a cruise company in North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company operates through the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands. It offers itineraries ranging from three days to a 180-days calling on various ports, including Scandinavia, Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Greek Isles, Alaska, Canada and New England, Hawaii, Asia, Tahiti and the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, Africa, India, South America, the Panama Canal, and the Caribbean.