Investors Buy Large Volume of Eaton Call Options (NYSE:ETN)

Eaton Corporation, PLC (NYSE:ETN) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders purchased 30,341 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 330% compared to the typical daily volume of 7,048 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Eaton from $440.00 to $406.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Eaton from $442.00 to $435.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Eaton in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Eaton in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down from $440.00) on shares of Eaton in a research report on Sunday, January 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $392.94.

Insider Transactions at Eaton

In other Eaton news, insider Sternadt Paulo Ruiz sold 10,707 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $390.26, for a total value of $4,178,513.82. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 27,729 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,821,519.54. This trade represents a 27.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Eaton

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Farmers National Bank boosted its holdings in Eaton by 69.4% during the 4th quarter. Farmers National Bank now owns 6,927 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,206,000 after acquiring an additional 2,839 shares during the last quarter. Gunpowder Capital Management LLC dba Oliver Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Eaton in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Mengis Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Eaton by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Mengis Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,738 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,509,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Bayban bought a new position in shares of Eaton during the fourth quarter valued at about $224,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Eaton during the fourth quarter valued at about $6,037,000. 82.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Eaton Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ETN opened at $355.68 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $137.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.00, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.32. Eaton has a fifty-two week low of $231.85 and a fifty-two week high of $408.45. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $355.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $355.29.

Eaton (NYSE:ETN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The industrial products company reported $3.23 EPS for the quarter. Eaton had a return on equity of 25.00% and a net margin of 14.89%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Eaton will post 12.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eaton Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. This is an increase from Eaton’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.04. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. Eaton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.07%.

Eaton Company Profile

Eaton (NYSE: ETN) is a diversified power management company that designs, manufactures and distributes products and systems to manage electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power. The company’s offerings are used to improve energy efficiency, reliability and safety across a wide range of applications, with core capabilities in electrical distribution and control, industrial hydraulics and aerospace systems.

Its product portfolio includes switchgear, circuit breakers, transformers, power distribution units, uninterruptible power supplies and surge protection devices for electrical infrastructure, along with hydraulic pumps, valves and filtration systems for industrial and mobile equipment.