Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on American Resources (NASDAQ:AREC)

American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders bought 16,691 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 164% compared to the typical daily volume of 6,331 put options.

Insider Activity at American Resources

In related news, major shareholder Properties Ltd. Golden sold 980,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.06, for a total value of $3,978,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 11,409,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $46,324,437.60. This represents a 7.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,564,818 shares of company stock worth $10,405,579. 16.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AREC. Virtu Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Resources by 271.3% in the first quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 101,913 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 74,464 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its position in American Resources by 65.5% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 37,892 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 15,000 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of American Resources by 86,418.3% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 122,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $102,000 after acquiring an additional 122,714 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of American Resources during the second quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of American Resources in the second quarter valued at $139,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 9.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on AREC. D Boral Capital upgraded shares of American Resources to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price target on shares of American Resources in a research report on Monday, October 13th. William Blair started coverage on American Resources in a research report on Monday, October 20th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. D. Boral Capital began coverage on American Resources in a research note on Monday, September 15th. They set a “buy” rating and a $6.00 target price for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of American Resources in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5.50.

American Resources Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AREC traded down $0.45 during trading on Thursday, reaching $2.64. The stock had a trading volume of 5,731,784 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,964,313. The company has a market cap of $262.32 million, a P/E ratio of -6.41 and a beta of 1.15. American Resources has a fifty-two week low of $0.38 and a fifty-two week high of $7.11. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $3.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $1.99.

American Resources (NASDAQ:AREC) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $0.05 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.01 million. Analysts forecast that American Resources will post -0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About American Resources

American Resources Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, extracts, processes, transports, and sells metallurgical coal to the steel and industrial industries. It supplies raw materials; and sells coal used in pulverized coal injections. The company was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Fishers, Indiana.