Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Gates Industrial (NYSE:GTES)

Gates Industrial Corp PLC (NYSE:GTES) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 3,945 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 366% compared to the typical daily volume of 847 call options.

Gates Industrial Stock Down 1.2 %

NYSE:GTES traded down $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $19.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 569,014 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,814,761. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.55 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 3.20, a quick ratio of 2.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $20.85 and a 200-day moving average of $20.02. Gates Industrial has a 52-week low of $15.14 and a 52-week high of $23.85.

Gates Industrial (NYSE:GTES) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.33. Gates Industrial had a return on equity of 9.75% and a net margin of 5.72%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Gates Industrial will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Gates Industrial

In other news, Director Fredrik J. Eliasson acquired 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $19.56 per share, for a total transaction of $1,173,600.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 188,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,686,121.12. This represents a 46.71 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Gates Industrial by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 225,512 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,639,000 after purchasing an additional 27,898 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Gates Industrial by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 39,815 shares of the company’s stock worth $819,000 after buying an additional 1,363 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Gates Industrial during the fourth quarter worth approximately $10,033,000. Brucke Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Gates Industrial in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $224,000. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Gates Industrial in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $209,000. 98.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GTES. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Gates Industrial from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Gates Industrial from $23.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Gates Industrial from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Gates Industrial from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Gates Industrial from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $24.11.

Gates Industrial Company Profile

Gates Industrial Corporation PLC designs and manufactures power transmission equipment. Its products serves harsh and hazardous industries such as agriculture, construction, manufacturing and energy, to everyday consumer applications such as printers, power washers, automatic doors and vacuum cleaners and virtually every form of transportation.