Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Xerox (NYSE:XRX)

Xerox Holdings Co. (NYSE:XRX) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 1,689 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 1,369% compared to the typical volume of 115 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Xerox news, EVP Suzan Morno-Wade sold 5,980 shares of Xerox stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.00, for a total value of $95,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 55,449 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $887,184. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 26,106 shares of company stock valued at $424,101 over the last 90 days. 0.38% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Xerox

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in XRX. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Xerox by 15.1% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,540,136 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $239,318,000 after purchasing an additional 2,033,262 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Xerox in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $19,940,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Xerox by 81.3% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,889,370 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,378,000 after buying an additional 847,204 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Xerox by 7.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,426,609 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $137,628,000 after buying an additional 637,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Xerox by 14.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,706,349 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $71,049,000 after buying an additional 607,148 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Xerox in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Xerox presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.75.

Xerox Price Performance

NYSE XRX opened at $16.96 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $15.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $15.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $2.66 billion, a PE ratio of -9.86 and a beta of 1.67. Xerox has a 1 year low of $11.80 and a 1 year high of $18.00.

Xerox (NYSE:XRX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The information technology services provider reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.75 billion. Xerox had a positive return on equity of 9.89% and a negative net margin of 3.52%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.13 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Xerox will post 1.7 EPS for the current year.

Xerox Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 29th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 28th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.90%. Xerox’s dividend payout ratio is -58.14%.

About Xerox

Xerox Holdings Corporation, a workplace technology company, designs, develops, and sells document management systems and solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, and internationally. It offers workplace solutions, including desktop monochrome, and color and multifunction printers; digital printing presses and light production devices, and solutions; and digital services that leverage workflow automation, personalization and communication software, content management solutions, and digitization services.