Investors Buy Large Volume of Luminar Technologies Call Options (NASDAQ:LAZR)

Luminar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:LAZR) saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 16,125 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 50% compared to the typical daily volume of 10,780 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Luminar Technologies

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Luminar Technologies by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 34,637 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,000 after purchasing an additional 7,564 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC raised its holdings in Luminar Technologies by 85.2% during the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 127,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $430,000 after acquiring an additional 58,652 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Luminar Technologies by 48.1% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 714,135 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,407,000 after acquiring an additional 232,024 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Luminar Technologies in the fourth quarter worth about $55,000. Finally, Caz Investments LP grew its position in shares of Luminar Technologies by 200.0% during the fourth quarter. Caz Investments LP now owns 120,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 80,000 shares in the last quarter. 30.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on Luminar Technologies from $3.00 to $2.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Westpark Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $9.00 price target on shares of Luminar Technologies in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Luminar Technologies from $9.00 to $6.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Luminar Technologies from $1.50 to $1.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Luminar Technologies from $8.00 to $6.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $3.74.

Luminar Technologies Stock Performance

Shares of Luminar Technologies stock opened at $0.79 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $352.93 million, a P/E ratio of -0.58 and a beta of 1.61. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $1.22 and its 200 day moving average is $1.49. Luminar Technologies has a one year low of $0.73 and a one year high of $5.08.

Luminar Technologies (NASDAQ:LAZR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.22) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $16.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.36 million. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.37) earnings per share. Analysts predict that Luminar Technologies will post -1 EPS for the current year.

About Luminar Technologies

Luminar Technologies, Inc, an automotive technology company, provides sensor technologies and software for passenger cars and commercial trucks in North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. It operates in two segments, Autonomy Solutions and Advanced Technologies and Services. The Autonomy Solutions segment designs, manufactures, and sells laser imaging, detection, and ranging sensors or lidars, as well as related perception and autonomy software solutions primarily for original equipment manufacturers in the automobile, commercial vehicle, robo-taxi, and adjacent industries.