Investors Buy High Volume of Cencora Call Options (NYSE:COR)

Cencora, Inc. (NYSE:COR) saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 2,882 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 145% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,178 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

COR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Cencora from $280.00 to $287.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Leerink Partners reduced their target price on Cencora from $277.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 7th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Cencora from $287.00 to $283.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Cencora from $236.00 to $249.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Cencora from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cencora presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $259.44.

Insider Activity at Cencora

In related news, major shareholder Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. sold 4,438,171 shares of Cencora stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.56, for a total transaction of $1,067,646,415.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,980,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,806,388,800. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Cencora news, major shareholder Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. sold 4,438,171 shares of Cencora stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.56, for a total transaction of $1,067,646,415.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 19,980,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,806,388,800. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Silvana Battaglia sold 1,473 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.69, for a total value of $357,482.37. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,948 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,656,970.12. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 15.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cencora in the second quarter valued at about $655,000. TD Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Cencora during the first quarter valued at approximately $95,313,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Cencora during the first quarter valued at approximately $3,579,000. Cairn Investment Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cencora in the first quarter worth $2,294,000. Finally, Lake Street Advisors Group LLC bought a new stake in Cencora in the 1st quarter valued at $836,000. Institutional investors own 97.52% of the company’s stock.

Cencora Stock Performance

Shares of COR stock traded up $8.54 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $233.35. 1,397,657 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,415,036. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.93, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.54 billion, a PE ratio of 24.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.44. Cencora has a 12 month low of $182.75 and a 12 month high of $247.66. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $232.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $231.18.

Cencora (NYSE:COR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $3.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.18 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $74.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.32 billion. Cencora had a return on equity of 266.60% and a net margin of 0.65%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.92 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Cencora will post 13.63 EPS for the current year.

Cencora Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.51 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.87%. Cencora’s payout ratio is 22.32%.

About Cencora

Cencora, Inc sources and distributes pharmaceutical products. The company's U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment distributes pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter healthcare products, home healthcare supplies and equipment, and related services to acute care hospitals and health systems, independent and chain retail pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, medical clinics, long-term care and alternate site pharmacies, and other customers; provides pharmacy management, staffing, and other consulting services; supply management software to retail and institutional healthcare providers; packaging solutions to various institutional and retail healthcare providers; clinical trial support, product post-approval, and commercialization support services; data analytics, outcomes research, and additional services for biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturers; pharmaceuticals, vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostics, micro feed ingredients, and other products to the companion animal and production animal markets; and sales force services to manufacturers.