Barclays Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:BCS)

Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors bought 10,309 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 250% compared to the average daily volume of 2,945 call options.

Barclays Trading Up 2.1%

NYSE BCS traded up $0.53 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $26.17. The stock had a trading volume of 2,568,696 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,996,540. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.94, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 1.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $89.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.90, a P/E/G ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 1.01. Barclays has a one year low of $17.22 and a one year high of $27.70. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $24.09.

Barclays (NYSE:BCS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.88 billion. Barclays had a net margin of 21.10% and a return on equity of 8.12%. Sell-side analysts predict that Barclays will post 2.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler raised shares of Barclays from an “overweight” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Barclays from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. BNP Paribas Exane downgraded shares of Barclays from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Barclays from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Barclays in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Institutional Trading of Barclays

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Barclays by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 89,750,069 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,284,139,000 after purchasing an additional 3,722,757 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Barclays by 5.9% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 9,886,650 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $204,357,000 after acquiring an additional 549,497 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Barclays by 2.3% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 8,691,765 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $183,918,000 after acquiring an additional 199,130 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Barclays during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $141,248,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Barclays by 39.2% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,841,068 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $100,065,000 after acquiring an additional 1,362,247 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 3.39% of the company’s stock.

About Barclays

Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) is a British multinational bank and financial services company headquartered in London. The firm provides a broad range of banking and financial products to individual, corporate and institutional customers. Its core activities span retail and business banking, credit cards and payments, corporate and investment banking, and wealth and investment management.

In retail and business banking, Barclays offers deposit accounts, mortgages, personal and business loans, and card services.