Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD)

Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors acquired 218,678 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 37% compared to the average volume of 160,027 call options.

Robinhood Markets Stock Performance

NASDAQ:HOOD opened at $48.15 on Friday. Robinhood Markets has a 52 week low of $10.38 and a 52 week high of $49.27. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $38.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.22. The firm has a market cap of $42.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 2.07.

Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $637.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $660.53 million. Robinhood Markets had a net margin of 21.80% and a return on equity of 7.52%. The business’s revenue was up 36.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.09) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Robinhood Markets will post 0.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HOOD. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Robinhood Markets from $36.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Robinhood Markets from $55.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 price objective (up previously from $40.00) on shares of Robinhood Markets in a research report on Monday, December 9th. JMP Securities boosted their target price on shares of Robinhood Markets from $33.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Robinhood Markets from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $43.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.07.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Daniel Martin Gallagher, Jr. sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.22, for a total value of $477,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,106,955 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,307,820.10. The trade was a 1.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Jeffrey Tsvi Pinner sold 5,876 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.92, for a total transaction of $222,817.92. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 11,752 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $445,635.84. This trade represents a 33.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,700,658 shares of company stock valued at $140,360,682 over the last 90 days. 19.95% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Robinhood Markets

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Robinhood Markets by 1,211,858.7% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,817,670 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,410,000 after acquiring an additional 3,817,355 shares during the period. Azora Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Robinhood Markets during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $79,780,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Robinhood Markets by 31.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,129,544 shares of the company’s stock worth $330,914,000 after purchasing an additional 3,368,118 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Robinhood Markets by 486.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,788,666 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,906,000 after purchasing an additional 2,313,213 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Robinhood Markets by 19.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,620,673 shares of the company’s stock valued at $271,708,000 after purchasing an additional 1,895,427 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.27% of the company’s stock.

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.