Sensata Technologies Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:ST)

Sensata Technologies Holding plc (NYSE:ST) saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 8,630 call options on the company. This is an increase of 539% compared to the typical volume of 1,351 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group lowered their target price on Sensata Technologies from $44.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Sensata Technologies from $41.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Sensata Technologies from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on shares of Sensata Technologies from $47.00 to $44.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Sensata Technologies from $43.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.00.

Sensata Technologies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ST traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $27.18. The company had a trading volume of 198,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,840,501. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. Sensata Technologies has a 1 year low of $26.65 and a 1 year high of $43.14. The company has a market capitalization of $4.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -50.33, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.22. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $31.58 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.12.

Sensata Technologies (NYSE:ST) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86. Sensata Technologies had a positive return on equity of 17.68% and a negative net margin of 1.98%. The business had revenue of $982.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $983.93 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Sensata Technologies will post 3.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Sensata Technologies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 13th. Sensata Technologies’s dividend payout ratio is presently -88.89%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sensata Technologies by 84.8% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 5,059,047 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $189,158,000 after purchasing an additional 2,321,782 shares in the last quarter. Eminence Capital LP grew its stake in Sensata Technologies by 31.8% in the 2nd quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 3,423,317 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $127,998,000 after buying an additional 826,353 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Sensata Technologies by 64.5% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,854,773 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $69,350,000 after buying an additional 727,521 shares during the last quarter. Merewether Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Sensata Technologies during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,446,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Sensata Technologies by 16.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,643,665 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $173,627,000 after buying an additional 658,728 shares in the last quarter. 99.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Sensata Technologies

Sensata Technologies Holding plc develops, manufactures, and sells sensors and sensor-rich solutions, electrical protection components and systems, and other products used in mission-critical systems and applications in the United States and internationally. It operates in two segments, Performance Sensing and Sensing Solutions.