Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on TC Energy (NYSE:TRP)

TC Energy Corporation (NYSE:TRP) (TSE:TRP) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors acquired 16,157 put options on the company. This is an increase of 1,446% compared to the average volume of 1,045 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on TRP. Citigroup began coverage on TC Energy in a report on Friday, April 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered TC Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Cibc World Mkts raised TC Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, CIBC raised TC Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TC Energy

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of TC Energy by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,397,978 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,096,739,000 after acquiring an additional 710,837 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd lifted its position in TC Energy by 10.3% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 28,443,403 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,325,558,000 after buying an additional 2,644,627 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its position in TC Energy by 34.2% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 19,808,558 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $935,627,000 after buying an additional 5,053,228 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in TC Energy by 6.2% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 17,455,740 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $824,243,000 after buying an additional 1,018,590 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its position in TC Energy by 80.3% during the first quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 16,983,443 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $802,164,000 after buying an additional 7,562,887 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.13% of the company’s stock.

TC Energy Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of TRP opened at $47.01 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61. TC Energy has a 12 month low of $37.07 and a 12 month high of $51.99. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $49.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $47.65. The firm has a market cap of $48.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.51, a PEG ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 0.78.

TC Energy (NYSE:TRP) (TSE:TRP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The pipeline company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.04). TC Energy had a net margin of 29.17% and a return on equity of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $1.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.02 earnings per share. Analysts predict that TC Energy will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TC Energy Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a $0.6142 dividend. This represents a $2.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. TC Energy’s payout ratio is currently 77.89%.

About TC Energy

TC Energy Corporation operates as an energy infrastructure company in North America. It operates through five segments: Canadian Natural Gas Pipelines; U.S. Natural Gas Pipelines; Mexico Natural Gas Pipelines; Liquids Pipelines; and Power and Energy Solutions. The company builds and operates a network of 93,600 kilometers of natural gas pipelines, which transports natural gas from supply basins to local distribution companies, power generation plants, industrial facilities, interconnecting pipelines, LNG export terminals, and other businesses.