American Airlines Group Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:AAL)

American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ:AAL) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders bought 162,107 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 29% compared to the typical volume of 125,743 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Airlines Group

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAL. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of American Airlines Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in American Airlines Group by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 28,187 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $387,000 after buying an additional 2,145 shares in the last quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Airlines Group during the 4th quarter worth about $179,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of American Airlines Group by 50.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,049 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares during the period. Finally, Alaska Permanent Fund Corp increased its stake in shares of American Airlines Group by 12.9% in the 1st quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 174,606 shares of the airline’s stock valued at $2,680,000 after purchasing an additional 19,912 shares in the last quarter. 52.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAL has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of American Airlines Group from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. TD Securities dropped their price target on shares of American Airlines Group from $10.00 to $7.00 in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Barclays cut their price objective on American Airlines Group from $14.00 to $10.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded American Airlines Group to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Evercore cut their price target on shares of American Airlines Group from $13.00 to $10.00 in a report on Friday, July 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $13.09.

American Airlines Group Price Performance

American Airlines Group stock traded up $0.86 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $12.89. The stock had a trading volume of 53,022,515 shares, compared to its average volume of 34,837,180. The company has a market cap of $8.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.05, a PEG ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 1.43. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $10.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.82. American Airlines Group has a 52 week low of $9.07 and a 52 week high of $16.15.

American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The airline reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $14.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.38 billion. American Airlines Group had a negative return on equity of 19.49% and a negative net margin of 0.23%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.92 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that American Airlines Group will post 1.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Airlines Group Company Profile

American Airlines Group Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates as a network air carrier. The company provides scheduled air transportation services for passengers and cargo through its hubs in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington, DC, as well as through partner gateways in London, Doha, Madrid, Seattle/Tacoma, Sydney, and Tokyo.