Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Fluor (NYSE:FLR)

Fluor Co. (NYSE:FLR) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 21,245 call options on the company. This is an increase of 309% compared to the average volume of 5,194 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on FLR. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Fluor from $59.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Fluor from $58.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group raised their target price on Fluor from $51.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Fluor from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on Fluor from $60.00 to $59.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.43.

Fluor Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FLR opened at $39.58 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.89. The business has a 50-day moving average of $49.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $50.14. Fluor has a fifty-two week low of $35.04 and a fifty-two week high of $60.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77.

Fluor (NYSE:FLR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The construction company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.30). Fluor had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 1.64%. The company had revenue of $4.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.42 billion. On average, equities research analysts predict that Fluor will post 2.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Thomas P. D’agostino sold 7,681 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.39, for a total transaction of $433,131.59. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 137,974 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,780,353.86. This trade represents a 5.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Mark E. Fields sold 50,000 shares of Fluor stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.63, for a total transaction of $2,831,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 147,045 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,327,158.35. This trade represents a 25.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FLR. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its holdings in Fluor by 329.5% during the fourth quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 1,986,095 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $97,954,000 after acquiring an additional 1,523,647 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Fluor by 10,125.9% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,056,946 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $52,129,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,610 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new stake in Fluor in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $39,289,000. Hood River Capital Management LLC increased its position in Fluor by 58.4% in the 4th quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 1,952,254 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $96,285,000 after buying an additional 719,583 shares during the period. Finally, Yaupon Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Fluor during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,353,000. 88.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Fluor

Fluor Corporation provides engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC); fabrication and modularization; operation and maintenance; asset integrity; and project management services worldwide. The company operates through Energy Solutions, Urban Solutions, Mission Solutions, and Other segments. The Energy Solutions segment provides solutions to the energy transition markets, including asset decarbonization, carbon capture, renewable fuels, waste-to-energy, green chemicals, hydrogen, nuclear power, and other low-carbon energy sources.