Investors Buy High Volume of Elanco Animal Health Call Options (NYSE:ELAN)

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Investors acquired 21,205 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 1,048% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,847 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ELAN. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $19.00 price target (up from $18.00) on shares of Elanco Animal Health in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Barclays lifted their target price on Elanco Animal Health from $19.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Elanco Animal Health presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.29.

Insider Buying and Selling at Elanco Animal Health

In other Elanco Animal Health news, Director William F. Doyle bought 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were purchased at an average price of $16.98 per share, with a total value of $254,700.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 76,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,296,083.40. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Elanco Animal Health

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $62,510,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 33.8% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 15,095,179 shares of the company’s stock valued at $224,920,000 after purchasing an additional 3,816,514 shares during the period. Ancora Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $37,189,000. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 50,600,324 shares of the company’s stock valued at $753,945,000 after purchasing an additional 1,431,665 shares during the period. Finally, Wolf Hill Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $20,683,000. 97.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Elanco Animal Health Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ELAN opened at $14.28 on Friday. Elanco Animal Health has a fifty-two week low of $8.52 and a fifty-two week high of $18.80. The business has a 50-day moving average of $16.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $15.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.06 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 3.29 and a quick ratio of 1.96.

Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.18 billion. Elanco Animal Health had a positive return on equity of 5.98% and a negative net margin of 29.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.45 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Elanco Animal Health will post 0.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Elanco Animal Health

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated, an animal health company, innovates, develops, manufactures, and markets products for pets and farm animals. It offers pet health disease prevention products, such as parasiticide and vaccine products that protect pets from worms, fleas, and ticks under the Seresto, Advantage, Advantix, and Advocate brands; pet health therapeutics for pain, osteoarthritis, ear infections, cardiovascular, and dermatology indications in canines and felines under the Galliprant and Claro brands; vaccines, antibiotics, parasiticides, and other products for use in poultry and aquaculture production, as well as nutritional health products, including enzymes, probiotics, and prebiotics; and a range of vaccines, antibiotics, implants, parasiticides, and other products used in ruminant and swine production under the Rumensin and Baytril brands.