Altice USA (NYSE:ATUS) Shares Down 5% on Insider Selling

Altice USA, Inc. (NYSE:ATUS) was down 5% during trading on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $2.49 and last traded at $2.49. Approximately 192,076 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 94% from the average daily volume of 3,484,631 shares. The stock had previously closed at $2.62.

Specifically, Director Alt S.A.R.L. Next sold 805,230 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.50, for a total transaction of $19,728,135.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 11,483,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $281,339,919. This represents a 6.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Alt S.A.R.L. Next sold 805,230 shares of Altice USA stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.50, for a total transaction of $19,728,135.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,093,722 shares in the company, valued at approximately $320,796,189. This trade represents a 5.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ATUS shares. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Altice USA from $6.00 to $3.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Citigroup upped their target price on Altice USA from $2.50 to $3.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $2.30.

Altice USA Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $1.15 billion, a PE ratio of -6.76 and a beta of 1.53. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $2.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.21.

Altice USA (NYSE:ATUS) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.04 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $2.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. Altice USA had a negative net margin of 1.85% and a negative return on equity of 1.54%. The company’s revenue was down 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.15 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Altice USA, Inc. will post -0.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ATUS. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Altice USA during the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC acquired a new stake in Altice USA during the second quarter valued at $25,000. D.A. Davidson & CO. purchased a new position in Altice USA in the third quarter valued at about $32,000. Wolverine Trading LLC purchased a new position in Altice USA in the third quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its position in Altice USA by 30.2% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 21,530 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.85% of the company’s stock.

Altice USA Company Profile

Altice USA, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides broadband communications and video services in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. It offers broadband, video, telephony, and mobile services to residential and business customers. The company's video services include delivery of broadcast stations and cable networks; over the top services; video-on-demand, high-definition channels, digital video recorder, and pay-per-view services; and platforms for video programming through mobile applications.