Eaton Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:ETN)

Eaton Co. plc (NYSE:ETN) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors purchased 8,194 call options on the company. This is an increase of 117% compared to the average daily volume of 3,783 call options.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Ernest W. Marshall, Jr. sold 19,750 shares of Eaton stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total value of $5,395,107.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,712 shares in the company, valued at $8,116,427.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Eaton news, insider Ernest W. Marshall, Jr. sold 19,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.17, for a total value of $5,395,107.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,712 shares in the company, valued at $8,116,427.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Peter Denk sold 1,731 shares of Eaton stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.97, for a total transaction of $500,207.07. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,593,380.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 38,969 shares of company stock valued at $10,904,774. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Eaton by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,595,656 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $8,812,966,000 after purchasing an additional 259,615 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Eaton by 36.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 19,921,979 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,248,960,000 after acquiring an additional 5,270,331 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Eaton by 2.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,009,435 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,068,412,000 after purchasing an additional 109,775 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Eaton in the fourth quarter worth about $1,087,983,000. Finally, Coatue Management LLC lifted its holdings in Eaton by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Coatue Management LLC now owns 3,986,445 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $960,016,000 after purchasing an additional 195,809 shares during the period. 82.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ETN. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Eaton from $262.00 to $308.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Eaton from $255.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Eaton from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $312.00 target price on shares of Eaton in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Eaton from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $250.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.60.

Eaton Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of ETN traded up $0.79 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $325.09. The company had a trading volume of 1,178,355 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,946,668. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $304.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $258.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Eaton has a 1-year low of $165.24 and a 1-year high of $331.47. The stock has a market cap of $129.87 billion, a PE ratio of 40.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.07.

Eaton (NYSE:ETN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The industrial products company reported $2.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.47 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $5.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.91 billion. Eaton had a net margin of 13.88% and a return on equity of 20.05%. Eaton’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.06 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Eaton will post 10.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Eaton Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 6th will be given a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 3rd. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.16%. Eaton’s payout ratio is currently 46.88%.

About Eaton

Eaton Corporation plc operates as a power management company worldwide. The company's Electrical Americas and Electrical Global segment provides electrical components, industrial components, power distribution and assemblies, residential products, single and three phase power quality and connectivity products, wiring devices, circuit protection products, utility power distribution products, power reliability equipment, and services, as well as hazardous duty electrical equipment, emergency lighting, fire detection, explosion-proof instrumentation, and structural support systems.