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

Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders acquired 8,337 put options on the company. This is an increase of 91% compared to the typical daily volume of 4,361 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. 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 valued at $416,476,000 after buying an additional 245,066 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries by 1.4% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,350,476 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $397,458,000 after buying an additional 138,229 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Hawaiian Electric Industries by 1,470.8% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,120,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $75,338,000 after purchasing an additional 5,730,428 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Hawaiian Electric Industries by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,770,062 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,670,000 after buying an additional 31,995 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised 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 acquiring 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 stock opened at $9.52 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 0.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $11.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $12.72. Hawaiian Electric Industries has a 1-year low of $8.74 and a 1-year high of $40.16. The firm has a market cap of $1.05 billion, a PE ratio of 5.25 and a beta of 0.53.

Hawaiian Electric Industries (NYSE:HE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48. Hawaiian Electric Industries had a net margin of 5.45% and a return on equity of 9.99%. The firm had revenue of $961.40 million during the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.52 earnings per share. Hawaiian Electric Industries’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Hawaiian Electric Industries will post 1.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on HE shares. StockNews.com upgraded Hawaiian Electric Industries from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries from $7.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Hawaiian Electric Industries has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $11.50.

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.