Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Altice USA (NYSE:ATUS)

Altice USA, Inc. (NYSE:ATUS) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 12,648 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 2,084% compared to the typical daily volume of 579 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ATUS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Altice USA from $6.00 to $3.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Altice USA from $2.50 to $3.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $2.30.

Altice USA Stock Up 3.2 %

ATUS stock traded up $0.09 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $2.75. The company had a trading volume of 1,748,763 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,095,449. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a PE ratio of -7.42 and a beta of 1.50. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $2.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.23. Altice USA has a fifty-two week low of $1.52 and a fifty-two week high of $3.18.

Altice USA (NYSE:ATUS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.04 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $2.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. The company’s revenue was down 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.15 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Altice USA will post -0.06 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Altice USA news, Director Alt S.A.R.L. Next sold 805,230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.50, for a total transaction of $19,728,135.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,651,882 shares in the company, valued at $162,971,109. This represents a 10.80 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 15,299,331 shares of company stock worth $374,833,610. 52.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altice USA

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Altice USA by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,669,487 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,566,000 after purchasing an additional 24,501 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Altice USA during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. XTX Topco Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Altice USA by 112.1% during the second quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 81,314 shares of the company’s stock valued at $166,000 after buying an additional 42,975 shares during the last quarter. King Street Capital Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Altice USA during the second quarter worth approximately $5,100,000. Finally, Aristeia Capital L.L.C. bought a new position in Altice USA in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $657,000. 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.