Portillo's Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:PTLO)

Portillo's Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock traders bought 3,247 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 100% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,626 call options.

Institutional Trading of Portillo's

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Portillo's during the second quarter valued at $29,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its position in Portillo's by 307.9% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 522,580 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,079,000 after buying an additional 394,479 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Portillo's by 499.4% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 392,167 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,812,000 after buying an additional 326,743 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of Portillo's by 21.2% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 20,902 shares of the company's stock worth $203,000 after buying an additional 3,661 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Portillo's by 43.5% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 3,300 shares of the company's stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.34% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on PTLO shares. Stephens reissued an "equal weight" rating and set a $13.00 price target on shares of Portillo's in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Portillo's from $15.00 to $13.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Portillo's from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $13.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Portillo's from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $14.00.

Portillo's Stock Performance

Shares of PTLO traded up $0.90 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $13.39. 3,165,003 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,874,913. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.38. Portillo's has a 1-year low of $8.38 and a 1-year high of $16.17. The business's 50 day moving average price is $10.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $993.83 million, a PE ratio of 31.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.23 and a beta of 1.72.

Portillo's (NASDAQ:PTLO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $178.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $182.07 million. Portillo's had a net margin of 3.65% and a return on equity of 5.62%. Portillo's's quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.07 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Portillo's will post 0.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Portillo's

Portillo's Inc owns and operates fast casual restaurants in the United States. The company offers Chicago-style hot dogs and sausages, Italian beef sandwiches, char-grilled burgers, chopped salads, crinkle-cut French fries, homemade chocolate cakes, and chocolate cake shake. It offers its products through its website, application, and certain third-party platforms.