GE Vernova Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:GEV)

GE Vernova Inc. (NYSE:GEV) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Investors purchased 15,340 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 33% compared to the typical volume of 11,563 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GEV. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of GE Vernova by 2.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 24,047,678 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,131,677,000 after buying an additional 584,208 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in GE Vernova by 1.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,434,917 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,660,695,000 after acquiring an additional 118,184 shares in the last quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of GE Vernova during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,507,296,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of GE Vernova by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,594,223 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,420,763,000 after purchasing an additional 80,479 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of GE Vernova by 83.1% in the third quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 2,560,248 shares of the company’s stock valued at $639,704,000 after purchasing an additional 1,161,901 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GEV. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on GE Vernova from $385.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of GE Vernova from $301.00 to $367.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of GE Vernova from $385.00 to $411.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of GE Vernova in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, HSBC reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $255.00 price target (up from $240.00) on shares of GE Vernova in a report on Friday, October 4th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, GE Vernova presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $342.94.

GE Vernova Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GEV opened at $382.73 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $105.50 billion and a PE ratio of 68.84. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $353.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $276.49. GE Vernova has a 12 month low of $115.00 and a 12 month high of $447.50.

GE Vernova (NYSE:GEV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The company reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.30 by ($0.57). The business had revenue of $10.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.70 billion. GE Vernova had a net margin of 4.44% and a return on equity of 6.70%. The company’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that GE Vernova will post 6.61 EPS for the current year.

GE Vernova Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 28th. Investors of record on Friday, December 20th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 20th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.26%. GE Vernova’s dividend payout ratio is presently 17.99%.

GE Vernova declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 6.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

About GE Vernova

GE Vernova LLC, an energy business company, generates electricity. It operates under three segments: Power, Wind, and Electrification. The Power segments generates and sells electricity through hydro, gas, nuclear, and steam power. Wind segment engages in the manufacturing and sale of wind turbine blades; and Electrification segment provides grid solutions, power conversion, solar, and storage solutions.