Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Blue Owl Capital Put Options (NYSE:OWL)

Blue Owl Capital Inc. (NYSE:OWL) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Investors bought 50,814 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 32% compared to the average daily volume of 38,456 put options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blue Owl Capital

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of OWL. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Blue Owl Capital by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 90,245,690 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,348,272,000 after acquiring an additional 5,029,134 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blue Owl Capital by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,608,868 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,025,016,000 after acquiring an additional 691,980 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Blue Owl Capital by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 65,402,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $977,118,000 after purchasing an additional 2,676,281 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of Blue Owl Capital by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,563,953 shares of the company’s stock worth $382,008,000 after buying an additional 1,751,024 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners grew its position in Blue Owl Capital by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 14,123,877 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,270,000 after acquiring an additional 1,970,101 shares during the period. 35.85% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

OWL has been the topic of several research reports. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Blue Owl Capital in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Blue Owl Capital from $24.00 to $17.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $11.00 price target (down from $15.00) on shares of Blue Owl Capital in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Blue Owl Capital in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Blue Owl Capital in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.00.

Blue Owl Capital Price Performance

Shares of OWL traded down $0.08 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $9.82. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 31,127,955 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,280,738. Blue Owl Capital has a 12-month low of $9.54 and a 12-month high of $21.88. The company’s 50 day moving average is $13.43 and its 200 day moving average is $15.41. The stock has a market cap of $15.26 billion, a PE ratio of 98.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.15.

Blue Owl Capital (NYSE:OWL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.05. Blue Owl Capital had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 2.75%.The firm had revenue of $701.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $712.75 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blue Owl Capital will post 0.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blue Owl Capital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th were issued a $0.225 dividend. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. Blue Owl Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 900.00%.

Blue Owl Capital Company Profile

Blue Owl Capital is a global alternative asset manager that focuses on private credit, direct lending and equity-related strategies for institutional investors. Headquartered in New York, the firm develops and manages a range of private markets products designed to provide capital solutions to middle-market and larger corporate borrowers, as well as liquidity and partnership arrangements with private equity firms and other alternative managers.

Its core activities include direct lending and credit strategies that provide senior, unitranche and other structured loan products to companies across industries.