H&E Equipment Services Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:HEES)

H&E Equipment Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEES - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Investors purchased 2,308 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 1,096% compared to the average volume of 193 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, B. Riley reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $60.00 price objective (down previously from $62.00) on shares of H&E Equipment Services in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $61.25.

H&E Equipment Services Stock Down 1.4 %

NASDAQ HEES traded down $1.29 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $89.00. 4,716,389 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,217,254. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.09, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The company has a market cap of $3.26 billion, a PE ratio of 22.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 13.05 and a beta of 1.88. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $55.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.75. H&E Equipment Services has a 52 week low of $40.92 and a 52 week high of $90.66.

H&E Equipment Services (NASDAQ:HEES - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.00 by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $384.86 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $388.18 million. H&E Equipment Services had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 25.46%. The firm's revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that H&E Equipment Services will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

H&E Equipment Services Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. H&E Equipment Services's dividend payout ratio is presently 27.92%.

Institutional Trading of H&E Equipment Services

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of H&E Equipment Services by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 755,017 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $36,762,000 after purchasing an additional 4,226 shares during the last quarter. KG&L Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of H&E Equipment Services during the 3rd quarter valued at $542,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of H&E Equipment Services during the 2nd quarter valued at $545,000. Jade Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of H&E Equipment Services during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,217,000. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of H&E Equipment Services by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 779,075 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $37,925,000 after purchasing an additional 21,805 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.08% of the company's stock.

About H&E Equipment Services

H&E Equipment Services, Inc engages in the provision of equipment services, which focus on heavy construction and industrial equipment. It operates through the following segments: Equipment Rentals, New Equipment Sales, Used Equipment Sales, Parts Sales, and Services. The Equipment Rentals segment focuses on renting construction and industrial equipment.