Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:AY)

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc (NASDAQ:AY) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders purchased 3,127 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 448% compared to the average volume of 571 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on AY shares. UBS Group upgraded shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $19.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. National Bank Financial downgraded shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.67.

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AY opened at $20.41 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a PE ratio of 48.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure has a 1 year low of $16.35 and a 1 year high of $28.14. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $18.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.98.

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure (NASDAQ:AY) last released its earnings results on Friday, March 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.23) by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $241.31 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $243.81 million. Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure had a net margin of 4.43% and a return on equity of 2.91%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.03 EPS. Analysts expect that Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure will post 0.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 12th were given a dividend of $0.445 per share. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.72%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 11th. Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure’s dividend payout ratio is currently 423.81%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure by 1.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,927,486 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,915,000 after buying an additional 33,635 shares during the last quarter. Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC raised its position in Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure by 1.9% in the third quarter. Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC now owns 1,324,276 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,294,000 after purchasing an additional 24,300 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure in the third quarter worth about $24,218,000. Advisors Capital Management LLC raised its position in Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure by 32.2% in the third quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 990,341 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,916,000 after purchasing an additional 241,417 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure in the fourth quarter worth about $15,487,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.53% of the company’s stock.

About Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure

Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc owns, manages, and invests in renewable energy, storage, natural gas and heat, electric transmission lines, and water assets in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company was formerly known as Atlantica Yield plc and changed its name to Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc in May 2020.