Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Rogers Communication (NYSE:RCI)

Rogers Communication, Inc. (NYSE:RCI) (TSE:RCI.B) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Investors bought 4,476 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 906% compared to the typical volume of 445 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Rogers Communication during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Rogers Communication by 107.4% during the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 786 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of Rogers Communication by 143.2% during the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 1,661 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 978 shares in the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Rogers Communication during the third quarter worth $58,000. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC bought a new position in shares of Rogers Communication in the third quarter worth $63,000. Institutional investors own 45.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. TD Securities cut shares of Rogers Communication from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Rogers Communication in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. Desjardins reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Rogers Communication in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Rogers Communication in a research report on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.00.

Rogers Communication Stock Up 1.6%

NYSE RCI traded up $0.54 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $33.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 387,270 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,208,183. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.52, a PEG ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 0.64. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.85. The company has a current ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43. Rogers Communication has a twelve month low of $31.38 and a twelve month high of $41.14.

Rogers Communication (NYSE:RCI) (TSE:RCI.B) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.01. Rogers Communication had a return on equity of 12.11% and a net margin of 32.00%.The firm had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.44 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.99 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Rogers Communication will post 3.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Rogers Communication Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. Rogers Communication’s payout ratio is 15.30%.

Rogers Communication Company Profile

Rogers Communications Inc is a Canadian integrated communications and media company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The company provides a broad range of telecommunications services to residential and business customers across Canada, including wireless voice and data services, cable television, high-speed internet, and home phone services. In the enterprise market it offers managed IT, data center and cloud solutions, networking and connectivity services targeted to small businesses, large enterprises and public sector clients.

In addition to connectivity services, Rogers operates a significant media portfolio that includes national and regional television and radio assets, sports broadcasting properties and other content businesses.