Traders Purchase High Volume of Xerox Put Options (NYSE:XRX)

Xerox Holdings Co. (NYSE:XRX) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors bought 1,689 put options on the company. This is an increase of 1,369% compared to the typical volume of 115 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on XRX shares. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on shares of Xerox from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. StockNews.com raised Xerox from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on Xerox in a research report on Friday, June 28th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $11.00 target price on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Xerox has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.75.

Xerox Trading Down 6.4 %

Shares of XRX stock opened at $10.17 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $13.93. Xerox has a 1 year low of $9.51 and a 1 year high of $19.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.48 and a beta of 1.58.

Xerox (NYSE:XRX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The information technology services provider reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.14). Xerox had a positive return on equity of 7.33% and a negative net margin of 1.60%. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.60 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.44 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Xerox will post 1.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Xerox Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. Xerox’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -63.69%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Xerox

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its position in Xerox by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 72,476 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,328,000 after acquiring an additional 1,407 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Xerox in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Xerox by 70.1% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 61,191 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,122,000 after purchasing an additional 25,214 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Xerox by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,587,041 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,090,000 after buying an additional 153,144 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in Xerox by 316.1% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 222,087 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,071,000 after buying an additional 168,713 shares in the last quarter. 85.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Xerox

Xerox Holdings Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a workplace technology company that integrates hardware, services, and software for enterprises in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Print and Other; and FITTLE.