Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Cameco Call Options (NYSE:CCJ)

Cameco Co. (NYSE:CCJ) (TSE:CCO) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Traders acquired 384,705 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,490% compared to the average daily volume of 24,198 call options.

Institutional Trading of Cameco

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCJ. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cameco by 10.4% in the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 5,918 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 557 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Cameco by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 17,598 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $867,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cameco by 39.0% during the 2nd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 834 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd raised its position in shares of Cameco by 11.4% during the 2nd quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd now owns 1,222,300 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $60,137,000 after buying an additional 125,000 shares during the period. Finally, Dantai Capital Ltd lifted its holdings in Cameco by 36.9% in the second quarter. Dantai Capital Ltd now owns 39,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,953,000 after acquiring an additional 10,700 shares during the last quarter. 70.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on CCJ shares. National Bank Financial upgraded Cameco to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Janney Montgomery Scott raised Cameco to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cameco has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.56.

Cameco Stock Up 1.9 %

CCJ opened at $52.91 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $23.03 billion, a PE ratio of 278.49 and a beta of 0.91. Cameco has a twelve month low of $35.43 and a twelve month high of $62.55. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $55.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 2.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Cameco (NYSE:CCJ) (TSE:CCO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The basic materials company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.40). The firm had revenue of $721.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $646.83 million. Cameco had a net margin of 4.15% and a return on equity of 3.33%. Cameco’s revenue was up 25.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.24 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Cameco will post 0.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cameco Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 27th were given a dividend of $0.118 per share. This is an increase from Cameco’s previous annual dividend of $0.09. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 27th. This represents a yield of 0.22%. Cameco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 57.89%.

Cameco Company Profile

Cameco Corporation provides uranium for the generation of electricity. It operates through Uranium, Fuel Services, Westinghouse segments. The Uranium segment is involved in the exploration for, mining, and milling, purchase, and sale of uranium concentrate. The Fuel Services segment engages in the refining, conversion, and fabrication of uranium concentrate, as well as the purchase and sale of conversion services.