Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX)

MediaAlpha, Inc. (NYSE:MAX) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors acquired 2,291 put options on the company. This is an increase of 630% compared to the typical daily volume of 314 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at MediaAlpha

In other news, major shareholder Mountains Insurance Grou White sold 5,000,200 shares of MediaAlpha stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $95,003,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,856,614 shares in the company, valued at $339,275,666. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Insignia Capital Partners Gp, sold 2,589,800 shares of MediaAlpha stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $49,206,200.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Mountains Insurance Grou White sold 5,000,200 shares of MediaAlpha stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $95,003,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,856,614 shares in the company, valued at approximately $339,275,666. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 11.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MediaAlpha

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in MediaAlpha by 9.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 1,235 shares during the period. Portside Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in MediaAlpha by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 18,755 shares of the company’s stock worth $209,000 after purchasing an additional 1,567 shares during the period. Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in MediaAlpha by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,775 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,000 after purchasing an additional 1,660 shares during the period. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in MediaAlpha by 0.4% in the first quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 375,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,649,000 after purchasing an additional 1,667 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in MediaAlpha by 4.6% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 45,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $375,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MAX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $25.00 price target (up previously from $19.00) on shares of MediaAlpha in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of MediaAlpha from $18.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on shares of MediaAlpha from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of MediaAlpha from $18.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised shares of MediaAlpha from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $9.00 to $28.00 in a report on Monday, February 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MediaAlpha currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.71.

MediaAlpha Stock Performance

Shares of MAX traded down $0.27 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $15.94. 801,726 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 449,011. MediaAlpha has a 1-year low of $7.62 and a 1-year high of $25.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a PE ratio of -23.84 and a beta of 1.26. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $18.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.53.

MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by $0.09. The company had revenue of $126.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.17 million. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.23) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MediaAlpha will post -0.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About MediaAlpha

MediaAlpha, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates an insurance customer acquisition platform in the United States. It optimizes customer acquisition in various verticals of property and casualty insurance, health insurance, and life insurance. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.