Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on TKO Group (NYSE:TKO)

TKO Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:TKO) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Investors purchased 4,275 put options on the company. This is an increase of 221% compared to the average daily volume of 1,332 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other TKO Group news, CFO Shane Kapral sold 254 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.08, for a total transaction of $54,376.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,012 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $216,648.96. This represents a 20.06% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Nick Khan sold 9,519 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.16, for a total value of $1,857,728.04. Following the sale, the director directly owned 108,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,269,512.60. This represents a 8.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 30,334 shares of company stock worth $5,886,681 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 61.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TKO Group

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TKO. State Street Corp raised its stake in TKO Group by 20.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,249,091 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,060,106,000 after purchasing an additional 887,401 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of TKO Group in the 2nd quarter worth $132,441,000. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its holdings in TKO Group by 14.4% in the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 4,850,006 shares of the company’s stock valued at $882,459,000 after acquiring an additional 611,233 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. purchased a new stake in TKO Group during the second quarter valued at about $82,056,000. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in TKO Group by 551.8% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 494,964 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,059,000 after acquiring an additional 419,021 shares during the last quarter. 89.79% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TKO Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE TKO traded down $1.70 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $214.41. The company had a trading volume of 487,787 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,255,609. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. TKO Group has a twelve month low of $133.07 and a twelve month high of $218.11. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $194.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $187.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.83 billion, a PE ratio of 82.15 and a beta of 0.65.

TKO Group (NYSE:TKO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.11). TKO Group had a net margin of 5.27% and a return on equity of 2.57%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 27.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that TKO Group will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current year.

TKO Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a $0.78 dividend. This is a positive change from TKO Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. TKO Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 119.54%.

TKO Group declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, September 15th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on TKO shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of TKO Group in a report on Monday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on TKO Group from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on TKO Group from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Pivotal Research raised their target price on TKO Group from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of TKO Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $225.00.

TKO Group Company Profile

TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO) is a global sports and entertainment company formed in 2023 through the combination of two major combat-sports businesses. The company brings together the mixed martial arts organization UFC and the sports entertainment business WWE under a single publicly traded holding company. TKO owns and manages a portfolio of live-event franchises, intellectual property, and media rights centered on combat and sports-entertainment content.

TKO’s core activities include the promotion and production of live events, the licensing and sale of broadcasting and streaming rights, and the development and commercialization of branded consumer products.