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

TC Energy Co. (NYSE:TRP) (TSE:TRP) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 16,157 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,446% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,045 put options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TC Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TRP. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in TC Energy in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $104,000. Atomi Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in TC Energy in the first quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Windsor Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of TC Energy by 2.5% during the first quarter. Windsor Advisory Group LLC now owns 12,831 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $516,000 after purchasing an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc purchased a new position in shares of TC Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $111,587,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in TC Energy during the first quarter worth approximately $1,159,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.13% of the company’s stock.

TC Energy Stock Performance

TRP stock traded up $0.16 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $49.01. 1,380,311 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,082,598. TC Energy has a 1-year low of $31.83 and a 1-year high of $50.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 1.31 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $46.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.64. The firm has a market cap of $50.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.55, a PEG ratio of 4.07 and a beta of 0.81.

TC Energy (NYSE:TRP) (TSE:TRP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.06. TC Energy had a net margin of 31.15% and a return on equity of 12.92%. The firm had revenue of $2.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. On average, analysts expect that TC Energy will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

TC Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.822 per share. This represents a $3.29 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.71%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from TC Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. TC Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 78.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TRP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded TC Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of TC Energy from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com began coverage on TC Energy in a research report on Saturday, October 5th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on TC Energy from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised TC Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, TC Energy presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $48.50.

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.