Traders Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Petco Health and Wellness (NASDAQ:WOOF)

Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:WOOF) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 22,057 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 1,194% compared to the average volume of 1,704 put options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on WOOF shares. UBS Group lowered their target price on Petco Health and Wellness from $3.00 to $2.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $1.50 target price (down from $5.00) on shares of Petco Health and Wellness in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Petco Health and Wellness from $3.50 to $2.70 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Petco Health and Wellness from $4.00 to $3.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price target on shares of Petco Health and Wellness in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $3.65.

Petco Health and Wellness Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WOOF traded down $0.14 during trading on Thursday, reaching $1.42. The company had a trading volume of 1,633,519 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,942,466. Petco Health and Wellness has a twelve month low of $1.41 and a twelve month high of $10.76. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $2.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a current ratio of 0.86.

Petco Health and Wellness (NASDAQ:WOOF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 13th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02. Petco Health and Wellness had a negative return on equity of 2.20% and a negative net margin of 20.47%. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.17 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Petco Health and Wellness will post -0.23 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Petco Health and Wellness

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WOOF. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in Petco Health and Wellness by 27,234.3% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 218,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $870,000 after purchasing an additional 217,874 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in Petco Health and Wellness by 1,254.2% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 15,302 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 14,172 shares during the last quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC increased its stake in Petco Health and Wellness by 57.2% in the third quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 466,460 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,908,000 after purchasing an additional 169,642 shares during the last quarter. InTrack Investment Management Inc grew its position in Petco Health and Wellness by 2.4% during the third quarter. InTrack Investment Management Inc now owns 157,770 shares of the company’s stock valued at $645,000 after acquiring an additional 3,670 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Petco Health and Wellness by 1.5% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 382,413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,564,000 after acquiring an additional 5,695 shares during the period.

Petco Health and Wellness Company Profile

Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc, operates as a health and wellness company, focuses on enhancing the lives of pets, pet parents, and its Petco partners in the United States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. The company provides veterinary care, grooming, training, tele-health, and Vital Care and pet health insurance services, as well as veterinary services through Vetco mobile clinics.