Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Portillo’s Call Options (NASDAQ:PTLO)

Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors purchased 3,247 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 100% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,626 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PTLO has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Portillo’s from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Portillo’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $13.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Monday. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $13.00 price objective on shares of Portillo’s in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Portillo’s from $15.00 to $13.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Portillo’s currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $14.00.

Portillo’s Price Performance

NASDAQ:PTLO opened at $13.39 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $993.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.88, a PEG ratio of 12.23 and a beta of 1.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.32. Portillo’s has a 1 year low of $8.38 and a 1 year high of $16.17.

Portillo’s (NASDAQ:PTLO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by $0.05. Portillo’s had a return on equity of 5.62% and a net margin of 3.65%. The company had revenue of $178.25 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $182.07 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.07 earnings per share. Portillo’s’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Portillo’s will post 0.34 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Portillo’s

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Engaged Capital LLC raised its position in Portillo’s by 121.5% in the 3rd quarter. Engaged Capital LLC now owns 6,114,956 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,368,000 after purchasing an additional 3,354,513 shares during the period. Hodges Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Portillo’s during the third quarter valued at approximately $12,337,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its holdings in shares of Portillo’s by 307.9% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 522,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,079,000 after buying an additional 394,479 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Portillo’s by 499.4% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 392,167 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,812,000 after buying an additional 326,743 shares during the period. Finally, Emerald Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Portillo’s by 29.4% during the 3rd quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 1,272,214 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,137,000 after acquiring an additional 288,675 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.34% of the company’s stock.

About Portillo’s

Portillo’s Inc owns and operates fast casual restaurants in the United States. The company offers Chicago-style hot dogs and sausages, Italian beef sandwiches, char-grilled burgers, chopped salads, crinkle-cut French fries, homemade chocolate cakes, and chocolate cake shake. It offers its products through its website, application, and certain third-party platforms.