Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS)

Kohl’s Co. (NYSE:KSS) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 41,902 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 29% compared to the typical daily volume of 32,372 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Feeney Siobhan Mc sold 16,367 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.27, for a total transaction of $315,392.09. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 136,799 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,636,116.73. This trade represents a 10.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.86% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kohl’s

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KSS. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Kohl’s by 149.3% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,572,086 shares of the company’s stock valued at $349,671,000 after buying an additional 9,925,878 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 740,398 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Kohl’s by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,434,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $147,923,000 after acquiring an additional 52,126 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Kohl’s by 26.3% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,093,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $71,126,000 after acquiring an additional 643,913 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Kohl’s by 348.0% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,180,952 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,118,000 after purchasing an additional 1,694,162 shares in the last quarter. 98.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Kohl’s Trading Down 3.2 %

NYSE KSS opened at $14.74 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a current ratio of 1.08. Kohl’s has a one year low of $14.22 and a one year high of $29.60. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.64 billion, a PE ratio of 5.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.94.

Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $3.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. Kohl’s had a net margin of 1.66% and a return on equity of 7.43%. The business’s revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.53 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Kohl’s will post 1.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Kohl’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 13.57%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. Kohl’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 78.43%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on KSS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Kohl’s from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $19.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Telsey Advisory Group dropped their price objective on Kohl’s from $23.00 to $17.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Guggenheim reduced their target price on Kohl’s from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Gordon Haskett downgraded shares of Kohl’s from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $11.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Kohl’s from $20.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.22.

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.