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

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded TC Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on TC Energy from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of TC Energy from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of TC Energy in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of TC Energy from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.67.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TC Energy

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its position in TC Energy by 107.1% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 19,462,155 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $737,609,000 after acquiring an additional 10,065,000 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of TC Energy by 156.1% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 6,769,975 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $321,778,000 after purchasing an additional 4,126,801 shares during the period. Merewether Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of TC Energy during the second quarter worth $112,618,000. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in shares of TC Energy by 841.1% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,040,863 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $77,349,000 after purchasing an additional 1,824,008 shares during the period. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new stake in TC Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at $73,162,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.13% of the company’s stock.

TC Energy Stock Down 1.1 %

TRP opened at $46.78 on Friday. TC Energy has a 1 year low of $31.83 and a 1 year high of $50.37. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $47.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $44.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.31. The company has a market cap of $48.56 billion, a PE ratio of 12.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 0.82.

TC Energy (NYSE:TRP) (TSE:TRP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. TC Energy had a net margin of 31.15% and a return on equity of 12.92%. Sell-side analysts expect that TC Energy will post 3 earnings per share for the current year.

TC Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $0.822 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from TC Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $3.29 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.03%. TC Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.31%.

TC Energy Company Profile

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.