American Eagle Outfitters Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:AEO)

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders bought 24,963 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 392% compared to the average daily volume of 5,069 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Eagle Outfitters

In other news, CEO Jay L. Schottenstein sold 999,999 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.04, for a total transaction of $20,039,979.96. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,771,851 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,507,894.04. This trade represents a 36.08 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jennifer M. Foyle sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.79, for a total value of $653,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 200,427 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,367,304.33. The trade was a 13.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,050,702 shares of company stock valued at $21,148,718. Corporate insiders own 7.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of American Eagle Outfitters

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Investors Research Corp boosted its holdings in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 1.4% in the third quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 46,239 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 650 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System increased its position in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 52,537 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $1,049,000 after purchasing an additional 963 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 93,000 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $1,856,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 2.1% in the third quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 49,669 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $1,112,000 after buying an additional 1,033 shares during the period. Finally, Alhambra Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in American Eagle Outfitters by 7.8% during the second quarter. Alhambra Investment Management LLC now owns 15,275 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $305,000 after buying an additional 1,111 shares in the last quarter. 97.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AEO. Bank of America reduced their price objective on American Eagle Outfitters from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of American Eagle Outfitters from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $23.00 price objective (down previously from $27.00) on shares of American Eagle Outfitters in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of American Eagle Outfitters from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 2nd. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of American Eagle Outfitters from $32.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, American Eagle Outfitters presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.11.

American Eagle Outfitters Price Performance

NYSE:AEO traded down $2.83 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $17.71. The stock had a trading volume of 9,904,846 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,578,298. The company has a market capitalization of $3.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.51. American Eagle Outfitters has a 1-year low of $16.88 and a 1-year high of $26.44. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $19.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $20.50.

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 4th. The apparel retailer reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.02. American Eagle Outfitters had a net margin of 4.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.49 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that American Eagle Outfitters will post 1.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Eagle Outfitters Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 11th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 11th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.82%. American Eagle Outfitters’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.00%.

American Eagle Outfitters Company Profile

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc operates as a multi-brand specialty retailer in the United States and internationally. The company provides jeans, apparel and accessories, and personal care products for women and men under the American Eagle brand; and intimates, apparel, activewear, and swim collections under the Aerie and OFFLINE by Aerie brands.