Cameco Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:CCJ)

Cameco Co. (NYSE:CCJ) (TSE:CCO) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 384,705 call options on the company. This is an increase of 1,490% compared to the average volume of 24,198 call options.

Cameco Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of Cameco stock opened at $43.34 on Friday. Cameco has a 52-week low of $24.64 and a 52-week high of $51.33. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 72.23 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.55.

Cameco (NYSE:CCJ) (TSE:CCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The basic materials company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.21 by ($0.06). Cameco had a net margin of 13.97% and a return on equity of 5.61%. The company had revenue of $620.00 million for the quarter. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cameco will post 2.11 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cameco

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CCJ. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Cameco by 37.4% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 17,068,688 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $497,555,000 after buying an additional 4,644,453 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Cameco by 2.2% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 454,418 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $13,223,000 after purchasing an additional 9,757 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Cameco by 6.0% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 25,154 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $733,000 after purchasing an additional 1,414 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Cameco by 10.4% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 554,571 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,138,000 after purchasing an additional 52,341 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aviva PLC bought a new position in shares of Cameco in the first quarter worth approximately $819,000. 70.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CCJ has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded shares of Cameco from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 19th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cameco from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $65.33.

About Cameco

Cameco Corporation provides uranium for the generation of electricity. It operates through Uranium, Fuel Services, Westinghouse segments. The Uranium segment is involved in the exploration for, mining, and milling, purchase, and sale of uranium concentrate. The Fuel Services segment engages in the refining, conversion, and fabrication of uranium concentrate, as well as the purchase and sale of conversion services.