Keysight Technologies Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:KEYS)

Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:KEYS) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 2,193 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 216% compared to the typical daily volume of 695 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Keysight Technologies in the first quarter valued at approximately $621,993,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Keysight Technologies by 352.6% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,160,879 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $494,299,000 after acquiring an additional 2,462,543 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors acquired a new stake in shares of Keysight Technologies during the first quarter worth about $250,097,000. Boston Partners bought a new stake in Keysight Technologies during the 1st quarter worth approximately $175,979,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Keysight Technologies by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,400,035 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $697,411,000 after buying an additional 323,235 shares during the period. 84.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on KEYS. Bank of America lifted their target price on Keysight Technologies from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Keysight Technologies from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Keysight Technologies from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of Keysight Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Keysight Technologies from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $177.30.

Keysight Technologies Price Performance

Shares of Keysight Technologies stock opened at $165.48 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $28.72 billion, a PE ratio of 31.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.52. Keysight Technologies has a fifty-two week low of $119.72 and a fifty-two week high of $168.46. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $155.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $146.10.

Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 20th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $1.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.19 billion. Keysight Technologies had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.24%. The business’s revenue was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.04 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Keysight Technologies will post 5.48 EPS for the current year.

Keysight Technologies Company Profile

Keysight Technologies, Inc provides electronic design and test solutions to commercial communications, networking, aerospace, defense and government, automotive, energy, semiconductor, electronic, and education industries in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Communications Solutions Group and Electronic Industrial Solutions Group.