Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Xerox (NYSE:XRX)

Xerox Holdings Co. (NYSE:XRX) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders purchased 3,482 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 86% compared to the typical volume of 1,870 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Xerox

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Xerox by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,981,297 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,937,000 after acquiring an additional 190,034 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Xerox by 43.0% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,766,610 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,718,000 after acquiring an additional 531,173 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Xerox by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,587,041 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,090,000 after acquiring an additional 153,144 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in Xerox by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,044,971 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,154,000 after acquiring an additional 15,408 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bridgeway Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Xerox by 3.5% in the first quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 986,682 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,662,000 after acquiring an additional 33,590 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.36% of the company’s stock.

Xerox Price Performance

Xerox stock opened at $11.73 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $1.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.47 and a beta of 1.58. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $13.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.15. Xerox has a 12 month low of $11.44 and a 12 month high of $19.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

Xerox (NYSE:XRX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The information technology services provider reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.29). Xerox had a positive return on equity of 7.77% and a negative net margin of 2.74%. The company had revenue of $1.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.49 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Xerox will post 2.05 EPS for the current year.

Xerox Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 31st. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th will be given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.53%. Xerox’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -63.69%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

XRX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup began coverage on Xerox in a report on Friday, June 28th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Xerox from $18.00 to $17.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Xerox from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday.

Xerox Company Profile

Xerox Holdings Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a workplace technology company that integrates hardware, services, and software for enterprises in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Print and Other; and FITTLE.