Traders Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Keurig Dr Pepper (NASDAQ:KDP)

Keurig Dr Pepper, Inc (NASDAQ:KDP) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders purchased 43,191 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 225% compared to the typical volume of 13,277 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on KDP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Keurig Dr Pepper from $34.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Keurig Dr Pepper from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Barclays upped their target price on Keurig Dr Pepper from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Keurig Dr Pepper in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Keurig Dr Pepper from $41.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $34.87.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Angela A. Stephens sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.52, for a total transaction of $295,200.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 54,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,599,984. The trade was a 15.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Keurig Dr Pepper

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Keurig Dr Pepper during the second quarter worth $568,525,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Keurig Dr Pepper by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,257,574 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,265,055,000 after acquiring an additional 14,244,768 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Keurig Dr Pepper by 43.2% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 31,467,631 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,040,320,000 after acquiring an additional 9,494,503 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Keurig Dr Pepper by 11.2% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 63,608,006 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,117,279,000 after purchasing an additional 6,412,494 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Keurig Dr Pepper by 13.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,217,363 shares of the company’s stock worth $994,275,000 after purchasing an additional 3,595,579 shares during the last quarter. 93.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Keurig Dr Pepper Price Performance

Shares of Keurig Dr Pepper stock opened at $26.82 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.12, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.34. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.87. Keurig Dr Pepper has a 12 month low of $25.03 and a 12 month high of $36.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.38.

Keurig Dr Pepper (NASDAQ:KDP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.54. The firm had revenue of $4.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.15 billion. Keurig Dr Pepper had a return on equity of 11.19% and a net margin of 9.78%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Keurig Dr Pepper will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Keurig Dr Pepper Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 16th. Investors of record on Friday, January 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 2nd. Keurig Dr Pepper’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.31%.

About Keurig Dr Pepper

Keurig Dr Pepper (NASDAQ: KDP) is a North American beverage company formed in July 2018 through the combination of Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple Group. The company designs, manufactures, markets and distributes a wide range of hot and cold beverages and related equipment, combining Keurig’s single‑serve coffee systems with a large portfolio of carbonated and noncarbonated drink brands. It operates a network of manufacturing, packaging and distribution facilities to supply retail, foodservice and e-commerce channels across its served markets.

The company’s product mix includes single‑serve coffee brewers and coffee pods under the Keurig brand as well as a broad assortment of branded beverages.