Stock Update (NYSE:CTL): What’s behind CenturyLink put buying

[optionMONSTER] – Traders are positioning for a possible decline in shares of CenturyLink. optionMONSTER’s monitoring program shows that 2,500 July 32 puts were purchased for $2.70 to $3 today. Volume was more than 7 times … Read more on this. CenturyLink, Inc. (CTL) , with a current value of $17.19B, started trading this morning at $31.76. During today’s session, CTL traded between $31.07 to $31.93 and has traded between $21.94 and $37.00 over the past 12 months. CenturyLink (CTL) shares are currently priced at 12.24x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively inexpensive compared to the industry’s 15.48x earnings multiple for the same period. And for dividend hunters, the company pays shareholders $2.16 per share annually in dividends, yielding 6.78%. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 15 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $0.68 per share, which would be $0.01 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.07 sequential increase. In looking at the bigger picture, the full-year EPS estimate of $2.61 would be a $0.10 worse when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $4.43 Billion. If realized, that would be a 0.45% decrease over the year-ago quarter. Recently, Deutsche Bank Initiated CTL at Hold (Feb 24, 2016). Previously, RBC Capital Mkts Initiated CTL at to Sector Perform. Investors should keep in mind is that the average price target is $29.71, which is 6.45% below where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:CTL) Similar Articles: Stock Update: CenturyLink Inc (NYSE:CTL) – CenturyLink announces global premium supplier partnership agreement with SAP for SAP HANA® Enterprise Cloud service Stock Update: CenturyLink Inc (NYSE:CTL) – Adtran’s AT&T and CenturyLink Opportunity Stock Update: CenturyLink Inc (NYSE:CTL) – CenturyLink Declares Quarterly Cash Dividend