Altice USA (NYSE:ATUS) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Altice USA, Inc. (NYSE:ATUS)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $2.82, but opened at $2.97. Altice USA shares last traded at $2.86, with a volume of 439,511 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Altice USA from $6.00 to $3.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Altice USA from $2.50 to $3.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Raymond James raised shares of Altice USA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $3.50 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $2.41.

Altice USA Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $2.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $2.40. The company has a market capitalization of $1.28 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.06 and a beta of 1.52.

Altice USA (NYSE:ATUS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.04 by ($0.16). As a group, analysts forecast that Altice USA, Inc. will post -0.11 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Altice USA news, Director Alt S.A.R.L. Next sold 805,230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.50, for a total transaction of $19,728,135.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 14,704,182 shares in the company, valued at $360,252,459. This trade represents a 5.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 8,052,288 shares of company stock valued at $197,281,056 in the last quarter. 52.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Altice USA

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. US Bancorp DE grew its position in Altice USA by 30.2% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 21,530 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Altice USA by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 407,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $983,000 after purchasing an additional 8,000 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Altice USA during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Altice USA during the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Altice USA during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. 54.85% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Altice USA

Altice USA, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides broadband communications and video services in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. It offers broadband, video, telephony, and mobile services to residential and business customers. The company's video services include delivery of broadcast stations and cable networks; over the top services; video-on-demand, high-definition channels, digital video recorder, and pay-per-view services; and platforms for video programming through mobile applications.