Investors Purchase High Volume of iQIYI Put Options (NASDAQ:IQ)

iQIYI, Inc. (NASDAQ:IQ) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock traders bought 97,747 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 480% compared to the average volume of 16,857 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IQ has been the topic of several recent research reports. CLSA lowered iQIYI from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of iQIYI in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $2.91.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On iQIYI

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in IQ. Krane Funds Advisors LLC boosted its position in iQIYI by 82.1% during the 4th quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 21,763,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,745,000 after purchasing an additional 9,809,187 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP acquired a new position in iQIYI during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,818,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in iQIYI by 41.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 11,011,033 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,135,000 after purchasing an additional 3,235,223 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in iQIYI during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,297,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in iQIYI by 44.5% during the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 9,370,852 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,178,000 after purchasing an additional 2,886,631 shares during the period. 52.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

iQIYI Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ IQ opened at $1.67 on Friday. iQIYI has a twelve month low of $1.50 and a twelve month high of $4.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The company has a market capitalization of $1.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of -0.14. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.08.

iQIYI (NASDAQ:IQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 21st. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by ($0.02). iQIYI had a net margin of 2.62% and a return on equity of 7.62%. The firm had revenue of $988.19 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.10 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that iQIYI will post 0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

About iQIYI

iQIYI, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides online entertainment video services in the People's Republic of China. It offers various products and services, including online video, online games, online literature, animations, and other products. The company operates a platform that provides a collection of internet video content, such as professionally produced content licensed from professional content providers and self-produced content.