Investors Purchase High Volume of Lamb Weston Put Options (NYSE:LW)

Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors purchased 14,145 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 829% compared to the typical volume of 1,522 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp acquired a new stake in shares of Lamb Weston during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MCF Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Lamb Weston by 44.2% during the 4th quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 649 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Lamb Weston in the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its position in Lamb Weston by 380.7% during the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 721 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 571 shares during the period. Finally, Bell Investment Advisors Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Lamb Weston during the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. 89.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LW has been the subject of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Lamb Weston from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Lamb Weston from $40.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on Lamb Weston from $42.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Lamb Weston from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $52.00 target price on shares of Lamb Weston in a report on Monday, July 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.36.

Lamb Weston Stock Performance

Shares of Lamb Weston stock traded up $0.17 on Friday, hitting $46.63. The stock had a trading volume of 130,042 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,194,091. The stock has a market cap of $6.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97. Lamb Weston has a 52-week low of $37.62 and a 52-week high of $67.07. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $50.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.93.

Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 24th. The specialty retailer reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $1.77 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Lamb Weston had a net margin of 4.39% and a return on equity of 23.33%. Lamb Weston’s quarterly revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.87 EPS. Lamb Weston has set its FY 2027 guidance at 2.950-3.250 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Lamb Weston will post 3.06 EPS for the current year.

Lamb Weston Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 4th. Investors of record on Friday, August 7th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 7th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. Lamb Weston’s payout ratio is currently 73.08%.

Lamb Weston Company Profile

Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc (NYSE: LW) is a food company that produces and distributes frozen potato products. Its portfolio includes frozen french fries, potato wedges, hash browns, tater tots, mashed potatoes, sweet potato products and other specialty potato items.

The company serves restaurants, foodservice distributors, retailers and food manufacturers. Its products are sold under the Lamb Weston, Grown in Idaho and Alexia brands, as well as through private-label and customer-specific offerings.