Portillo’s Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:PTLO)

Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Monday. Investors bought 3,247 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 100% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,626 call options.

Institutional Trading of Portillo’s

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PTLO. Engaged Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Portillo’s by 121.5% during the 3rd quarter. Engaged Capital LLC now owns 6,114,956 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,368,000 after buying an additional 3,354,513 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Portillo’s by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,788,113 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,086,000 after buying an additional 175,999 shares in the last quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Portillo’s by 80.5% in the 4th quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,652,937 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,537,000 after buying an additional 737,049 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Portillo’s by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,291,846 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,838,000 after buying an additional 32,810 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Emerald Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of Portillo’s by 29.4% during the third quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 1,272,214 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,137,000 after acquiring an additional 288,675 shares during the last quarter. 98.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PTLO. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Portillo’s from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Portillo’s from $15.00 to $13.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $13.00 price target on shares of Portillo’s in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Portillo’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $13.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $14.00.

Portillo’s Trading Up 7.2 %

NASDAQ:PTLO opened at $13.39 on Tuesday. Portillo’s has a 12 month low of $8.38 and a 12 month high of $16.17. The company has a market capitalization of $993.83 million, a P/E ratio of 31.88, a PEG ratio of 12.23 and a beta of 1.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.32.

Portillo’s (NASDAQ:PTLO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $178.25 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $182.07 million. Portillo’s had a net margin of 3.65% and a return on equity of 5.62%. Portillo’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.07 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Portillo’s will post 0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Portillo’s Company Profile

Portillo’s Inc owns and operates fast casual restaurants in the United States. The company offers Chicago-style hot dogs and sausages, Italian beef sandwiches, char-grilled burgers, chopped salads, crinkle-cut French fries, homemade chocolate cakes, and chocolate cake shake. It offers its products through its website, application, and certain third-party platforms.