Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS)

Kohl’s Co. (NYSE:KSS) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 41,595 put options on the company. This is an increase of 20% compared to the average volume of 34,557 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kohl’s news, EVP Feeney Siobhan Mc sold 3,827 shares of Kohl’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.05, for a total value of $53,769.35. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 133,091 shares in the company, valued at $1,869,928.55. The trade was a 2.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.86% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kohl’s

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Kohl’s by 149.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,572,086 shares of the company’s stock worth $349,671,000 after purchasing an additional 9,925,878 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Kohl’s by 10.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,576,274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $159,859,000 after buying an additional 740,398 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Kohl’s by 348.0% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,180,952 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,118,000 after buying an additional 1,694,162 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its stake in shares of Kohl’s by 6,076.8% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 1,834,509 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,175,000 after purchasing an additional 1,804,809 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Kohl’s by 5.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,826,101 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,541,000 after purchasing an additional 91,608 shares during the period. 98.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KSS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Kohl’s from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $25.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Kohl’s from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Gordon Haskett lowered Kohl’s from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $11.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Baird R W lowered Kohl’s from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on Kohl’s from $18.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.22.

Kohl’s Stock Up 1.3 %

Kohl’s stock opened at $13.38 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.12. Kohl’s has a 1-year low of $12.62 and a 1-year high of $29.60. The company has a market cap of $1.49 billion, a PE ratio of 6.03 and a beta of 1.87. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $14.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.10.

Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $3.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. Kohl’s had a return on equity of 6.44% and a net margin of 1.47%. Kohl’s’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Kohl’s will post 1.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kohl’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 14.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. Kohl’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 90.09%.

About Kohl’s

Kohl’s Corporation operates as an omnichannel retailer in the United States. It offers branded apparel, footwear, accessories, beauty, and home products through its stores and website. The company provides its products primarily under the brand names of Croft & Barrow, Jumping Beans, SO, Sonoma Goods for Life, and Tek Gear, as well as Food Network, LC Lauren Conrad, Nine West, and Simply Vera Vera Wang.