Kohl’s Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:KSS)

Kohl’s Co. (NYSE:KSS) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 41,902 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 29% compared to the typical volume of 32,372 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on KSS shares. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Kohl’s from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Kohl’s from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $19.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Kohl’s from $18.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Gordon Haskett downgraded shares of Kohl’s from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $11.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered Kohl’s from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $25.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Kohl’s presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.22.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kohl’s

In other news, EVP Feeney Siobhan Mc sold 16,367 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.27, for a total transaction of $315,392.09. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 136,799 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,636,116.73. The trade was a 10.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.86% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Kohl’s

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Kohl’s by 149.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,572,086 shares of the company’s stock valued at $349,671,000 after purchasing an additional 9,925,878 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its position in shares of Kohl’s by 6,076.8% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 1,834,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,175,000 after buying an additional 1,804,809 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Kohl’s by 348.0% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,180,952 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,118,000 after buying an additional 1,694,162 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Kohl’s by 10.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,576,274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $159,859,000 after buying an additional 740,398 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in Kohl’s by 518.9% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 855,089 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,658,000 after acquiring an additional 716,919 shares in the last quarter. 98.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Kohl’s Trading Down 3.2 %

NYSE KSS traded down $0.48 on Wednesday, reaching $14.74. 22,784,443 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,414,291. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $18.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.94. Kohl’s has a fifty-two week low of $14.22 and a fifty-two week high of $29.60.

Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $3.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. Kohl’s had a net margin of 1.66% and a return on equity of 7.43%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. Analysts forecast that Kohl’s will post 1.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Kohl’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.57%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. Kohl’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 78.43%.

About Kohl’s

Kohl’s Corporation operates as an omnichannel retailer in the United States. It offers branded apparel, footwear, accessories, beauty, and home products through its stores and website. The company provides its products primarily under the brand names of Croft & Barrow, Jumping Beans, SO, Sonoma Goods for Life, and Tek Gear, as well as Food Network, LC Lauren Conrad, Nine West, and Simply Vera Vera Wang.