Elanco Animal Health Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:ELAN)

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Traders acquired 13,430 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 515% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,185 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Elanco Animal Health

In other news, Director Michael J. Harrington bought 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $14.85 per share, with a total value of $51,975.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 81,094 shares in the company, valued at $1,204,245.90. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director Michael J. Harrington purchased 3,500 shares of Elanco Animal Health stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $14.85 per share, with a total value of $51,975.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 81,094 shares in the company, valued at $1,204,245.90. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jeffrey N. Simmons bought 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 12th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $13.01 per share, for a total transaction of $1,301,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 145,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,886,450. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Elanco Animal Health

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its position in Elanco Animal Health by 337.7% during the second quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 1,764 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC bought a new stake in Elanco Animal Health during the second quarter worth $31,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in Elanco Animal Health during the second quarter worth $32,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp acquired a new stake in Elanco Animal Health in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Elanco Animal Health in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Institutional investors own 97.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Elanco Animal Health from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $17.00 to $15.00 in a report on Thursday. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Elanco Animal Health from $19.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 1st. Barclays dropped their price target on Elanco Animal Health from $23.00 to $21.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of Elanco Animal Health in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Elanco Animal Health presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.29.

Elanco Animal Health Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of Elanco Animal Health stock opened at $15.07 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a PE ratio of -5.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $13.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.93. Elanco Animal Health has a 52-week low of $8.52 and a 52-week high of $18.80.

Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.06. Elanco Animal Health had a negative net margin of 27.94% and a positive return on equity of 7.29%. The company had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.18 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Elanco Animal Health will post 0.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Elanco Animal Health Company Profile

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.