Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure (NASDAQ:AY)

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc (NASDAQ:AY) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 3,127 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 448% compared to the typical daily volume of 571 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AY. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,927,486 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,915,000 after acquiring an additional 33,635 shares in the last quarter. Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC increased its stake in shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC now owns 1,324,276 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,294,000 after acquiring an additional 24,300 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure in the 3rd quarter valued at $24,218,000. Advisors Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure by 32.2% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 990,341 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,916,000 after acquiring an additional 241,417 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure in the 4th quarter valued at $15,487,000. Institutional investors own 40.53% of the company’s stock.

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure Stock Up 7.6 %

NASDAQ:AY opened at $19.91 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $18.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a current ratio of 1.62 and a quick ratio of 1.57. Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure has a one year low of $16.35 and a one year high of $28.25. The company has a market cap of $2.31 billion, a PE ratio of 47.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.97.

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure (NASDAQ:AY) last posted its earnings results on Friday, March 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by $0.25. Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure had a net margin of 4.43% and a return on equity of 2.91%. The business had revenue of $241.31 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $243.81 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.03 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure will post 0.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 12th were issued a dividend of $0.445 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 11th. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.94%. Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure’s payout ratio is 423.82%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AY shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $19.00 to $25.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from $24.00 to $20.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.67.

About Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc owns, manages, and invests in renewable energy, storage, natural gas and heat, electric transmission lines, and water assets in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company was formerly known as Atlantica Yield plc and changed its name to Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc in May 2020.