Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Snap (NYSE:SNAP)

Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders acquired 128,528 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 46% compared to the typical volume of 87,999 call options.

Snap Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SNAP opened at $9.33 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.83 billion, a PE ratio of -22.22 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 3.95 and a quick ratio of 3.95. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $10.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $10.77. Snap has a fifty-two week low of $8.29 and a fifty-two week high of $17.33.

Snap (NYSE:SNAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.14 by ($0.13). Snap had a negative net margin of 13.02% and a negative return on equity of 25.67%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Snap will post -0.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on SNAP. Bank of America raised their price objective on Snap from $14.00 to $14.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $640.00 price objective on shares of Snap in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Guggenheim lowered shares of Snap from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $16.00 target price (down from $18.00) on shares of Snap in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Citizens Jmp downgraded Snap from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.87.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Derek Andersen sold 33,618 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.83, for a total value of $296,846.94. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 3,507,897 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,974,730.51. This represents a 0.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CTO Robert C. Murphy sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.04, for a total transaction of $9,040,000.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 55,818,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $504,599,673.92. The trade was a 1.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,350,523 shares of company stock worth $12,698,797 over the last three months. 22.68% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Snap

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Snap by 62.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,211,360 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,462,000 after buying an additional 2,386,519 shares in the last quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Snap during the 3rd quarter worth $2,349,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Snap by 49.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,639,681 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,245,000 after buying an additional 879,212 shares in the last quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC acquired a new position in shares of Snap during the 4th quarter worth $289,000. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Snap during the 3rd quarter worth $3,436,000. 47.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Snap Company Profile

Snap Inc operates as a technology company in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers Snapchat, a visual messaging application with various tabs, such as camera, visual messaging, snap map, stories, and spotlight that enable people to communicate visually through short videos and images.