Portillo's Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:PTLO)

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

Institutional Trading of Portillo's

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Portillo's by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,788,113 shares of the company's stock worth $24,086,000 after purchasing an additional 175,999 shares during the last quarter. Engaged Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Portillo's by 121.5% in the 3rd quarter. Engaged Capital LLC now owns 6,114,956 shares of the company's stock valued at $82,368,000 after buying an additional 3,354,513 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Portillo's by 55.6% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 117,430 shares of the company's stock worth $1,581,000 after buying an additional 41,944 shares during the last quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Portillo's during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $12,337,000. Finally, Rice Hall James & Associates LLC lifted its position in Portillo's by 51.2% during the third quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 207,945 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,801,000 after acquiring an additional 70,409 shares during the last quarter. 98.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PTLO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group cut their target price on Portillo's from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Stephens reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating and issued a $13.00 target price on shares of Portillo's in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Portillo's from $15.00 to $13.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Portillo's from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $13.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Portillo's presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $14.00.

Portillo's Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PTLO traded up $1.09 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $14.48. The stock had a trading volume of 3,157,526 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,950,213. Portillo's has a 1 year low of $8.38 and a 1 year high of $16.17. The company has a market cap of $1.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.23 and a beta of 1.72. The business's 50 day moving average price is $10.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

Portillo's (NASDAQ:PTLO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.06 by $0.05. Portillo's had a return on equity of 5.62% and a net margin of 3.65%. The firm had revenue of $178.25 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $182.07 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.07 EPS. Portillo's's quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect 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.