Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on Newell Brands (NASDAQ:NWL)

Newell Brands Inc. (NASDAQ:NWL - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Investors purchased 5,036 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 227% compared to the average volume of 1,538 put options.

Institutional Trading of Newell Brands

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of NWL. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Newell Brands by 4.5% in the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 54,796,231 shares of the company's stock valued at $494,810,000 after buying an additional 2,373,356 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Newell Brands by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,892,843 shares of the company's stock valued at $389,670,000 after buying an additional 739,295 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Newell Brands by 12.2% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,151,594 shares of the company's stock valued at $312,886,000 after buying an additional 2,732,905 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Newell Brands by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 13,747,330 shares of the company's stock valued at $119,327,000 after buying an additional 660,347 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Newell Brands by 39.2% in the second quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 11,259,689 shares of the company's stock valued at $97,959,000 after buying an additional 3,168,690 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.50% of the company's stock.

Newell Brands Trading Up 0.8 %

NWL traded up $0.06 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $7.39. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,857,739 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,176,968. Newell Brands has a fifty-two week low of $6.49 and a fifty-two week high of $12.75. The stock has a market cap of $3.07 billion, a PE ratio of -7.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.95. The business's 50-day moving average is $7.64 and its 200-day moving average is $7.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

Newell Brands (NASDAQ:NWL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.05. Newell Brands had a positive return on equity of 10.24% and a negative net margin of 4.77%. The company had revenue of $2.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.98 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.16 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Newell Brands will post 0.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Newell Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a dividend of $0.07 per share. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Newell Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently -29.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on NWL. Raymond James cut Newell Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Newell Brands from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Newell Brands from $8.50 to $7.75 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Newell Brands from $9.00 to $7.50 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Newell Brands from $7.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $9.13.

About Newell Brands

Newell Brands Inc engages in the design, manufacture, sourcing, and distribution of consumer and commercial products worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Home and Commercial Solutions, Learning and Development, and Outdoor and Recreation. The Commercial Solutions segment provides commercial cleaning and maintenance solution products under the Rubbermaid, Rubbermaid Commercial Products, Mapa, and Spontex brands; closet and garage organization products; hygiene systems and material handling solutions; household products, such as kitchen appliances under the Crockpot, Mr.