Alight Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:ALIT)

Alight, Inc. (NYSE:ALIT) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Traders acquired 35,880 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 2,013% compared to the average volume of 1,698 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David D. Guilmette acquired 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $5.69 per share, for a total transaction of $284,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 600,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,418,267.50. The trade was a 9.08% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alight

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Alight by 94.6% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,155,792 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,758,000 after purchasing an additional 2,020,648 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in shares of Alight by 17.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 23,980 shares of the company’s stock worth $166,000 after purchasing an additional 3,576 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alight by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,429,362 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,571,000 after purchasing an additional 530,769 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Alight by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,709,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,430,000 after purchasing an additional 712,912 shares during the period. Finally, Atria Investments Inc grew its stake in shares of Alight by 15.1% during the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 38,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $264,000 after purchasing an additional 4,993 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.74% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on ALIT shares. Wedbush lowered their price objective on shares of Alight from $11.00 to $9.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price target on shares of Alight in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $8.00 price target on shares of Alight in a research report on Friday, June 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $9.86.

Alight Stock Performance

Shares of Alight stock opened at $5.98 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.22 billion, a P/E ratio of -42.68 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $5.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $6.01. Alight has a 52 week low of $4.49 and a 52 week high of $8.93.

Alight (NYSE:ALIT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.12 by ($0.02). Alight had a positive return on equity of 5.74% and a negative net margin of 2.65%. The business had revenue of $548.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $542.66 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.13 EPS. Alight’s quarterly revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Alight will post 0.54 EPS for the current year.

Alight Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd were issued a $0.04 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.68%. Alight’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -114.29%.

About Alight

Alight, Inc provides cloud-based integrated digital human capital and business solutions worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Employer Solutions and Professional Services. The Employer Solutions segment offers employee wellbeing, integrated benefits administration, healthcare navigation, financial wellbeing, leave of absence management, retiree healthcare and payroll; and operates AI-led capabilities software.