Traders Purchase Large Volume of Canadian Solar Call Options (NASDAQ:CSIQ)

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders bought 15,417 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 233% compared to the average daily volume of 4,632 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in Canadian Solar by 9.2% in the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 15,291 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock valued at $302,000 after acquiring an additional 1,283 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Canadian Solar by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 18,716 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $276,000 after purchasing an additional 1,383 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Canadian Solar during the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Canadian Solar by 72.1% during the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 7,400 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $146,000 after buying an additional 3,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Green Alpha Advisors LLC grew its position in Canadian Solar by 8.8% in the third quarter. Green Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 40,390 shares of the solar energy provider’s stock worth $677,000 after buying an additional 3,282 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 52.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSIQ has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup lowered Canadian Solar from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $19.00 to $11.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. StockNews.com lowered Canadian Solar from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on shares of Canadian Solar from $43.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Glj Research increased their price objective on shares of Canadian Solar from $9.10 to $12.28 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Roth Mkm reduced their target price on shares of Canadian Solar from $25.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.03.

Canadian Solar Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CSIQ traded up $0.28 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $14.30. The company had a trading volume of 1,568,381 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,660,163. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $13.77 and its 200 day moving average is $15.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $946.07 million, a PE ratio of 27.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.92 and a beta of 1.31. Canadian Solar has a twelve month low of $11.41 and a twelve month high of $26.85.

Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 22nd. The solar energy provider reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.03. Canadian Solar had a return on equity of 0.99% and a net margin of 0.56%. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.39 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 30.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Canadian Solar will post 0.12 EPS for the current year.

About Canadian Solar

Canadian Solar Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides solar energy and battery energy storage products and solutions in in Asia, the Americas, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, CSI Solar and Recurrent Energy. The CSI Solar segment designs, develops, and manufactures solar ingots, wafers, cells, modules, and other solar power and battery storage products.