Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Pinterest (NYSE:PINS)

Pinterest, Inc. (NYSE:PINS) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 53,055 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 32% compared to the average volume of 40,157 put options.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Gokul Rajaram sold 1,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.73, for a total transaction of $34,189.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 32,536 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $967,295.28. The trade was a 3.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Andrea Acosta sold 3,845 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.88, for a total transaction of $118,733.60. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 158,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,893,491.84. This represents a 2.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,157 shares of company stock valued at $589,131 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 7.11% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Pinterest

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Maverick Capital Ltd. grew its position in Pinterest by 47.6% in the 3rd quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 57,180 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,851,000 after buying an additional 18,430 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its position in Pinterest by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,540,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,855,000 after buying an additional 119,367 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in Pinterest by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 844,187 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,326,000 after buying an additional 32,539 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Pinterest by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,252,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $137,669,000 after buying an additional 87,041 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS grew its position in Pinterest by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 404,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,087,000 after buying an additional 68,096 shares in the last quarter. 88.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pinterest Price Performance

NYSE PINS opened at $33.60 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.06. Pinterest has a 12 month low of $27.00 and a 12 month high of $45.19. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $31.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.55.

Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by ($0.30). Pinterest had a return on equity of 8.37% and a net margin of 6.21%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Pinterest will post 0.42 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PINS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Raymond James cut their target price on shares of Pinterest from $40.00 to $34.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Pinterest from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Pinterest from $39.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of Pinterest from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Pinterest from $41.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pinterest currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.70.

About Pinterest

Pinterest, Inc operates as a visual search and discovery platform in the United States and internationally. Its platform allows people to find ideas, such as recipes, home and style inspiration, and others; and to search, save, and shop the ideas. The company was formerly known as Cold Brew Labs Inc and changed its name to Pinterest, Inc in April 2012.