Portillo’s Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:PTLO)

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

Institutional Trading of Portillo’s

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Engaged Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Portillo’s by 121.5% in the third quarter. Engaged Capital LLC now owns 6,114,956 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,368,000 after acquiring an additional 3,354,513 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Portillo’s by 10.9% during 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 during the last quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Portillo’s by 80.5% in the 4th quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,652,937 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,537,000 after purchasing an additional 737,049 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Portillo’s by 2.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,291,846 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,838,000 after buying an additional 32,810 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Emerald Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Portillo’s by 29.4% in the third quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 1,272,214 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,137,000 after buying an additional 288,675 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $13.00 price objective on shares of Portillo’s in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Portillo’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $13.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Monday. UBS Group cut their target price on Portillo’s from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Portillo’s from $15.00 to $13.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $14.00.

Portillo’s Stock Up 7.3 %

Shares of PTLO traded up $0.91 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $13.40. 1,164,771 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,726,566. 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 company’s 50 day moving average is $10.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.32. The company has a market capitalization of $994.40 million, a P/E ratio of 31.99, a PEG ratio of 12.23 and a beta of 1.72. Portillo’s has a 52 week low of $8.38 and a 52 week high of $16.17.

Portillo’s (NASDAQ:PTLO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share 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 return on equity of 5.62% and a net margin of 3.65%. Portillo’s’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.07 earnings per share. On average, sell-side 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.