Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Portillo’s (NASDAQ:PTLO)

Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors acquired 3,247 call options on the company. This is an increase of 100% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,626 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Portillo’s

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Portillo’s during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. NBC Securities Inc. raised its holdings in Portillo’s by 43.5% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 3,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in Portillo’s in the fourth quarter valued at about $47,000. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in Portillo’s during the third quarter worth about $69,000. Finally, Sonora Investment Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Portillo’s during the fourth quarter valued at about $98,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Portillo’s from $15.00 to $13.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus raised Portillo’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $13.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Monday. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Portillo’s from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $13.00 target price on shares of Portillo’s in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Portillo’s has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $14.00.

Portillo’s Stock Performance

Shares of Portillo’s stock opened at $14.48 on Wednesday. Portillo’s has a one year low of $8.38 and a one year high of $16.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.38. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $10.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.38. The company has a market cap of $1.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.48, a PEG ratio of 12.23 and a beta of 1.72.

Portillo’s (NASDAQ:PTLO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $178.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $182.07 million. Portillo’s had a net margin of 3.65% and a return on equity of 5.62%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.07 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Portillo’s will post 0.34 EPS for the current year.

Portillo’s Company Profile

Portillo’s Inc owns and operates fast casual restaurants in the United States. The company offers Chicago-style hot dogs and sausages, Italian beef sandwiches, char-grilled burgers, chopped salads, crinkle-cut French fries, homemade chocolate cakes, and chocolate cake shake. It offers its products through its website, application, and certain third-party platforms.