Investors Purchase Large Volume of KKR & Co. Inc. Call Options (NYSE:KKR)

KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders purchased 19,916 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 282% compared to the average daily volume of 5,209 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KKR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays raised their price target on KKR & Co. Inc. from $107.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $104.00 price target on shares of KKR & Co. Inc. in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of KKR & Co. Inc. from $93.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of KKR & Co. Inc. to $144.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of KKR & Co. Inc. from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $90.64.

KKR & Co. Inc. Stock Performance

NYSE:KKR traded up $1.21 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $96.33. 2,544,117 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,464,389. KKR & Co. Inc. has a one year low of $47.79 and a one year high of $103.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $85.25 billion, a PE ratio of 23.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.62. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $97.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $83.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a current ratio of 0.11.

KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The asset manager reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $995.64 million. KKR & Co. Inc. had a net margin of 25.74% and a return on equity of 4.21%. Analysts anticipate that KKR & Co. Inc. will post 4.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KKR & Co. Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 16th were paid a dividend of $0.165 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. KKR & Co. Inc.’s payout ratio is 16.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Kkr Alternative Assets Llc acquired 286,402 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $24.94 per share, for a total transaction of $7,142,865.88. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 429,259 shares in the company, valued at $10,705,719.46. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, major shareholder Kkr Alternative Assets Llc purchased 286,402 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $24.94 per share, for a total transaction of $7,142,865.88. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 429,259 shares in the company, valued at $10,705,719.46. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Kkr Group Partnership L.P. sold 13,800,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.87, for a total value of $136,206,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 39.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KKR & Co. Inc.

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in KKR & Co. Inc. during the fourth quarter worth about $9,636,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of KKR & Co. Inc. by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,941,257 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,460,381,000 after purchasing an additional 475,118 shares in the last quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. acquired a new stake in shares of KKR & Co. Inc. in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,615,000. TIAA Trust National Association acquired a new stake in shares of KKR & Co. Inc. in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $8,530,000. Finally, abrdn plc boosted its stake in shares of KKR & Co. Inc. by 83.9% in the 4th quarter. abrdn plc now owns 293,690 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $24,332,000 after purchasing an additional 134,003 shares in the last quarter. 76.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About KKR & Co. Inc.

KKR & Co Inc is a private equity and real estate investment firm specializing in direct and fund of fund investments. It specializes in acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, credit special situations, growth equity, mature, mezzanine, distressed, turnaround, lower middle market and middle market investments.