Barclays Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:BCS)

Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 10,309 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 250% compared to the average daily volume of 2,945 call options.

Barclays Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BCS opened at $26.33 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $89.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.97, a PEG ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 1.01. Barclays has a 52 week low of $17.22 and a 52 week high of $27.70. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $23.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.94.

Barclays (NYSE:BCS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.01. Barclays had a net margin of 21.10% and a return on equity of 8.12%. The company had revenue of $5.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.88 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Barclays will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on BCS shares. Zacks Research cut shares of Barclays from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Barclays from an “overweight” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Barclays from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. BNP Paribas Exane cut shares of Barclays from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Barclays in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Barclays currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Barclays in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $141,248,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in Barclays by 793.5% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,777,017 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $99,073,000 after acquiring an additional 4,242,360 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Barclays in the first quarter valued at approximately $81,762,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Barclays by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 89,750,069 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,284,139,000 after acquiring an additional 3,722,757 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Research LLC acquired a new stake in Barclays in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,035,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

Barclays Company Profile

Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) is a British multinational bank and financial services company headquartered in London. The firm provides a broad range of banking and financial products to individual, corporate and institutional customers. Its core activities span retail and business banking, credit cards and payments, corporate and investment banking, and wealth and investment management.

In retail and business banking, Barclays offers deposit accounts, mortgages, personal and business loans, and card services.