Robinhood Markets Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:HOOD)

Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 238,973 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 35% compared to the typical daily volume of 176,834 call options.

Robinhood Markets Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:HOOD opened at $63.80 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $44.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $56.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.14, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.13. Robinhood Markets has a one year low of $12.77 and a one year high of $66.91.

Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.13. Robinhood Markets had a net margin of 21.80% and a return on equity of 7.52%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Robinhood Markets will post 0.97 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Robinhood Markets

In other Robinhood Markets news, insider Daniel Martin Gallagher, Jr. sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.22, for a total transaction of $477,750.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,106,955 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,307,820.10. This represents a 1.12 % 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. Also, Director Baiju Bhatt sold 90,866 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.34, for a total transaction of $5,028,524.44. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $279,024.28. This represents a 94.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,948,427 shares of company stock worth $165,005,244 over the last three months. 19.95% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Robinhood Markets

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in Robinhood Markets by 184.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 40,237,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,499,248,000 after buying an additional 26,107,934 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Robinhood Markets by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,558,321 shares of the company’s stock valued at $317,536,000 after acquiring an additional 1,085,679 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Robinhood Markets by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,175,972 shares of the company’s stock valued at $455,464,000 after acquiring an additional 555,299 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Robinhood Markets by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 12,078,116 shares of the company’s stock valued at $450,031,000 after acquiring an additional 3,091,514 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Robinhood Markets during the 4th quarter worth approximately $329,598,000. 93.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on HOOD. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Robinhood Markets from $52.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Robinhood Markets from $64.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Robinhood Markets from $36.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Robinhood Markets from $30.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Robinhood Markets from $54.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.07.

About Robinhood Markets

Robinhood Markets, Inc operates financial services platform in the United States. Its platform allows users to invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), American depository receipts, options, gold, and cryptocurrencies. The company offers fractional trading, recurring investments, fully-paid securities lending, access to investing on margin, cash sweep, instant withdrawals, retirement program, around-the-clock trading, and initial public offerings participation services.