Altice USA (NYSE:ATUS) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Altice USA, Inc. (NYSE:ATUS) shares gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $2.40, but opened at $2.49. Altice USA shares last traded at $2.47, with a volume of 56,762 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Altice USA from $6.00 to $3.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $2.22.

Altice USA Stock Up 2.9 %

The company’s 50-day moving average is $2.50 and its 200 day moving average is $2.20. The company has a market cap of $1.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.49 and a beta of 1.53.

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

Insider Activity at Altice USA

In other news, Director Alt S.A.R.L. Next sold 805,227 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.50, for a total transaction of $19,728,061.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 38,860,998 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $952,094,451. This represents a 2.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 11,273,181 shares of company stock valued at $276,192,935. 52.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altice USA

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ATUS. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Altice USA by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,682,757 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,602,000 after acquiring an additional 191,508 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its stake in Altice USA by 120.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,527,424 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,756,000 after purchasing an additional 834,030 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its holdings in Altice USA by 476.7% in the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 468,969 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,154,000 after purchasing an additional 387,655 shares during the last quarter. Wolverine Trading LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Altice USA in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Altice USA by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,534,608 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,775,000 after buying an additional 41,868 shares during the period. 54.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Altice USA

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.