Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:AY)

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc (NASDAQ:AY) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 3,127 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 448% compared to the typical volume of 571 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on AY shares. UBS Group raised Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $19.00 to $25.00 in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America decreased their price target on Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com downgraded Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, National Bank Financial downgraded Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.67.

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of AY opened at $20.41 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 1.57 and a current ratio of 1.62. Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure has a one year low of $16.35 and a one year high of $28.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.60, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $18.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.98.

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure (NASDAQ:AY) last issued its earnings results on Friday, March 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by $0.25. The company had revenue of $241.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $243.81 million. Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure had a return on equity of 2.91% and a net margin of 4.43%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.03 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure will post 0.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 12th were issued a dividend of $0.445 per share. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 11th. Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure’s dividend payout ratio is presently 423.81%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Rational Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure by 113.8% during the 1st quarter. Rational Advisors LLC now owns 1,926 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 1,025 shares in the last quarter. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new position in Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure during the 3rd quarter worth about $43,000. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure by 37.1% during the 3rd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 2,578 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 698 shares in the last quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC acquired a new position in Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure during the 3rd quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, Clean Yield Group lifted its stake in Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure by 71.4% during the 4th quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 6,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $129,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares in the last quarter. 40.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure Company Profile

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc owns, manages, and invests in renewable energy, storage, natural gas and heat, electric transmission lines, and water assets in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company was formerly known as Atlantica Yield plc and changed its name to Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc in May 2020.