Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Hawaiian Electric Industries (NYSE:HE)

Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE - Get Free Report) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 8,337 put options on the company. This is an increase of 91% compared to the typical volume of 4,361 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on HE shares. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries from $7.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com raised shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hawaiian Electric Industries has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $11.50.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hawaiian Electric Industries

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HE. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,016,050 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $416,476,000 after acquiring an additional 245,066 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries by 1.4% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,350,476 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $397,458,000 after acquiring an additional 138,229 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries by 1,470.8% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,120,053 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $75,338,000 after buying an additional 5,730,428 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Hawaiian Electric Industries by 0.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,770,062 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $130,670,000 after purchasing an additional 31,995 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries by 240.3% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,211,650 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $27,225,000 after buying an additional 1,561,737 shares during the last quarter. 59.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Hawaiian Electric Industries Stock Performance

HE traded down $1.14 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $9.52. 12,205,618 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,370,304. Hawaiian Electric Industries has a fifty-two week low of $8.74 and a fifty-two week high of $40.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 0.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $11.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.72. The company has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.25 and a beta of 0.53.

Hawaiian Electric Industries (NYSE:HE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.48. Hawaiian Electric Industries had a return on equity of 9.99% and a net margin of 5.45%. The business had revenue of $961.40 million for the quarter. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.52 EPS. The firm's revenue was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Hawaiian Electric Industries will post 1.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Hawaiian Electric Industries

Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the electric utility businesses in the United States. It operates in three segments: Electric Utility, Bank, and Other. The Electric Utility segment engages in the production, purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, and Molokai.