Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Howard Hughes (NYSE:HHH)

Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HHH) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Investors bought 2,940 call options on the company. This is an increase of 406% compared to the typical daily volume of 581 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mary Ann Tighe sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.83, for a total transaction of $532,980.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 13,495 shares in the company, valued at $1,198,760.85. This represents a 30.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director R Scot Sellers purchased 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 23rd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $77.94 per share, with a total value of $389,700.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 67,517 shares in the company, valued at $5,262,274.98. This trade represents a 8.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 48.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Howard Hughes

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Howard Hughes by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,497,032 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,179,000 after purchasing an additional 9,102 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Howard Hughes by 0.3% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 747,495 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,422,000 after buying an additional 2,595 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Howard Hughes by 0.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 567,967 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,343,000 after buying an additional 2,427 shares in the last quarter. Crcm LP grew its holdings in shares of Howard Hughes by 82.5% during the third quarter. Crcm LP now owns 560,713 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,074,000 after buying an additional 253,490 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in Howard Hughes by 98.3% during the 3rd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 556,860 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,757,000 after purchasing an additional 276,083 shares during the last quarter. 93.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HHH has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Howard Hughes from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Howard Hughes in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Howard Hughes from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.33.

Howard Hughes Stock Up 0.5%

NYSE:HHH traded up $0.40 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $81.88. 321,691 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 348,510. The company has a market cap of $4.86 billion, a PE ratio of 15.96 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.18. Howard Hughes has a one year low of $61.40 and a one year high of $91.07. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $83.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.54.

Howard Hughes (NYSE:HHH) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.56 by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $390.24 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $331.52 million. Howard Hughes had a net margin of 14.95% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The business’s revenue was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.95 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Howard Hughes will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Howard Hughes Company Profile

Howard Hughes Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development company in the United States. It operates in four segments: Operating Assets; Master Planned Communities (MPCs); Seaport; and Strategic Developments. The Operating Assets segment consists of developed or acquired retail, office, and multi-family properties along with other retail investments. Its MPCs segment develops, sells, and leases residential and commercial land designated for long-term community development projects in and around Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston, Texas; and Phoenix, Arizona.