Investors Buy Large Volume of W&T Offshore Call Options (NYSE:WTI)

W&T Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:WTI - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Investors purchased 4,052 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 591% compared to the average volume of 586 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of W&T Offshore by 24.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 39,829 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 7,776 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of W&T Offshore by 10.0% during the 1st quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 120,643 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $187,000 after purchasing an additional 10,962 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its holdings in shares of W&T Offshore by 39.9% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 46,419 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $77,000 after purchasing an additional 13,237 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of W&T Offshore by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 156,226 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $259,000 after purchasing an additional 15,445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, R Squared Ltd grew its holdings in shares of W&T Offshore by 48.6% during the 1st quarter. R Squared Ltd now owns 48,500 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 15,870 shares in the last quarter. 42.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Wall Street Zen cut W&T Offshore from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Sunday.

W&T Offshore Stock Performance

WTI traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $2.06. The company's stock had a trading volume of 9,189,459 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,797,535. W&T Offshore has a 52 week low of $1.09 and a 52 week high of $2.84. The company's 50-day moving average is $1.51 and its 200-day moving average is $1.56. The firm has a market cap of $304.16 million, a PE ratio of -2.86 and a beta of 0.65.

W&T Offshore (NYSE:WTI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The oil and gas company reported ($0.13) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.14) by $0.01. W&T Offshore had a negative return on equity of 775.16% and a negative net margin of 20.66%. The business had revenue of $129.87 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $123.91 million. Equities analysts anticipate that W&T Offshore will post -0.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W&T Offshore Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 20th were issued a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 20th. W&T Offshore's dividend payout ratio is -5.56%.

W&T Offshore Company Profile

W&T Offshore, Inc engages in the production, exploration, development, and acquisition of oil and natural gas properties. It focuses its operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The company was founded by Tracy W. Krohn in 1983 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.