Investors Buy High Volume of Call Options on DuPont de Nemours (NYSE:DD)

DuPont de Nemours, Inc. (NYSE:DD) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 5,967 call options on the company. This is an increase of 56% compared to the average daily volume of 3,819 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new position in DuPont de Nemours in the second quarter valued at approximately $83,540,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of DuPont de Nemours in the 2nd quarter valued at $67,665,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in DuPont de Nemours by 9.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,410,485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $556,751,000 after buying an additional 570,703 shares in the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management acquired a new stake in DuPont de Nemours during the third quarter valued at $42,810,000. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its holdings in DuPont de Nemours by 48.3% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 1,415,900 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $126,171,000 after buying an additional 461,400 shares in the last quarter. 73.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DD has been the subject of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of DuPont de Nemours from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of DuPont de Nemours from $98.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on DuPont de Nemours from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com raised DuPont de Nemours from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on DuPont de Nemours from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.25.

DuPont de Nemours Price Performance

Shares of DD opened at $76.63 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.03 billion, a PE ratio of 40.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.28 and a quick ratio of 1.49. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $82.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $81.89. DuPont de Nemours has a 1-year low of $61.14 and a 1-year high of $90.06.

DuPont de Nemours (NYSE:DD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The basic materials company reported $1.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $3.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.20 billion. DuPont de Nemours had a return on equity of 6.64% and a net margin of 6.35%. The company’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.92 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that DuPont de Nemours will post 3.89 EPS for the current year.

DuPont de Nemours Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%. DuPont de Nemours’s payout ratio is currently 80.00%.

About DuPont de Nemours

DuPont de Nemours, Inc provides technology-based materials and solutions in the United States, Canada, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates through Electronics & Industrial, Water & Protection, and Corporate & Other segments. The Electronics & Industrial segment supplies materials and solutions for the fabrication of semiconductors and integrated circuits.