Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Howard Hughes (NYSE:HHH)

Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HHH) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 2,940 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 406% compared to the average volume of 581 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on HHH. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Howard Hughes from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 15th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Howard Hughes in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Howard Hughes from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $83.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director R Scot Sellers bought 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 23rd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $77.94 per share, with a total value of $389,700.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 67,517 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,262,274.98. The trade was a 8.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Mary Ann Tighe sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.83, for a total transaction of $532,980.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 13,495 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,198,760.85. The trade was a 30.78% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 48.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Howard Hughes

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HHH. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of Howard Hughes by 134.2% during the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 363 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC bought a new stake in Howard Hughes during the third quarter valued at $31,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. boosted its position in shares of Howard Hughes by 291.0% during the 2nd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 391 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 291 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Howard Hughes by 191.5% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 516 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 339 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Howard Hughes by 69.6% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 665 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 273 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.83% of the company’s stock.

Howard Hughes Stock Performance

Shares of HHH stock traded down $1.22 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $81.37. 152,936 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 335,348. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $83.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.86 and a beta of 1.22. Howard Hughes has a 52 week low of $61.40 and a 52 week high of $91.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.18.

Howard Hughes (NYSE:HHH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $390.24 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $331.52 million. Howard Hughes had a net margin of 14.95% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.95 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Howard Hughes will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

About Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development company in the United States. It operates in four segments: Operating Assets; Master Planned Communities (MPCs); Seaport; and Strategic Developments. The Operating Assets segment consists of developed or acquired retail, office, and multi-family properties along with other retail investments. Its MPCs segment develops, sells, and leases residential and commercial land designated for long-term community development projects in and around Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston, Texas; and Phoenix, Arizona.