Investors Buy Large Volume of U.S. Bancorp Put Options (NYSE:USB)

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors acquired 40,853 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 178% compared to the typical volume of 14,691 put options.

Insider Transactions at U.S. Bancorp

In other news, EVP James L. Chosy sold 21,582 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.47, for a total value of $895,005.54. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 164,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,837,573.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, insider Timothy A. Welsh sold 12,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total transaction of $487,993.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 106,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,313,616.14. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP James L. Chosy sold 21,582 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.47, for a total transaction of $895,005.54. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 164,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,837,573.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 60,265 shares of company stock valued at $2,535,903. Company insiders own 0.23% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of U.S. Bancorp

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Scotia Capital Inc. grew its position in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 2.9% in the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 35,012 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,158,000 after purchasing an additional 990 shares during the period. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in U.S. Bancorp by 33.4% during the fourth quarter. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. now owns 62,539 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,707,000 after acquiring an additional 15,665 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in U.S. Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth about $4,073,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in U.S. Bancorp by 19.4% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,677,378 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $286,874,000 after acquiring an additional 1,410,324 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in U.S. Bancorp by 104.3% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 105,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,548,000 after acquiring an additional 53,653 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of U.S. Bancorp from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Compass Point upgraded shares of U.S. Bancorp from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $46.00 to $49.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. TheStreet upgraded shares of U.S. Bancorp from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 26th. HSBC upgraded shares of U.S. Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $47.00 to $53.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Stephens lowered shares of U.S. Bancorp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, U.S. Bancorp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.41.

U.S. Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NYSE USB traded down $1.48 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.52. The company had a trading volume of 14,001,182 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,743,655. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.72. U.S. Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $27.27 and a fifty-two week high of $45.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $61.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 17th. The financial services provider reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.28. U.S. Bancorp had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 14.89%. The business had revenue of $6.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that U.S. Bancorp will post 3.87 earnings per share for the current year.

U.S. Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 29th were given a $0.49 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.96%. U.S. Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.76%.

U.S. Bancorp Company Profile

U.S. Bancorp, a financial services holding company, provides various financial services to individuals, businesses, institutional organizations, governmental entities, and other financial institutions in the United States. It operates through Wealth, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking; Consumer and Business Banking; Payment Services; and Treasury and Corporate Support segments.