Brookfield Asset Management Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:BAM)

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. (NYSE:BAM) (TSE:BAM.A) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors bought 6,924 put options on the company. This is an increase of 751% compared to the typical volume of 814 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Brookfield Asset Management by 30,651.5% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 31,097,454 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $891,564,000 after purchasing an additional 30,996,329 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Brookfield Asset Management in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $239,421,000. FIL Ltd lifted its position in Brookfield Asset Management by 66.1% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 11,314,071 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $454,424,000 after acquiring an additional 4,501,410 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Brookfield Asset Management by 166.2% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,051,145 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $398,883,000 after acquiring an additional 4,402,115 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Asset Management by 114.5% during the 4th quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 6,922,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $279,387,000 after buying an additional 3,695,774 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.41% of the company’s stock.

Brookfield Asset Management Trading Down 1.6 %

NYSE BAM opened at $38.42 on Friday. Brookfield Asset Management has a 1-year low of $28.35 and a 1-year high of $43.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $41.03 and a 200-day moving average of $37.47. The firm has a market cap of $15.87 billion, a PE ratio of 34.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.68.

Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE:BAM) (TSE:BAM.A) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The financial services provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.02. Brookfield Asset Management had a return on equity of 96.43% and a net margin of 50.23%. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Brookfield Asset Management will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Asset Management Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is an increase from Brookfield Asset Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.96%. Brookfield Asset Management’s dividend payout ratio is 134.51%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on BAM. Scotiabank raised their target price on Brookfield Asset Management from $46.50 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. CIBC lifted their price objective on Brookfield Asset Management from $40.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Brookfield Asset Management from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. TD Securities dropped their price target on Brookfield Asset Management from $52.00 to $49.00 and set an “action list buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Brookfield Asset Management from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Brookfield Asset Management has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.20.

About Brookfield Asset Management

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. is a real estate investment firm specializing in alternative asset management services. Its renewable power and transition business includes the operates in the hydroelectric, wind, solar, distributed generation, and sustainable solution sector. The company's infrastructure business engages in the utilities, transport, midstream, and data infrastructure sectors.