Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Pinterest (NYSE:PINS)

Pinterest, Inc. (NYSE:PINS) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors acquired 37,150 call options on the company. Thisisanincreaseof43% compared to the typical daily volume of 25,929 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on PINS. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Pinterest from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $37.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Monness Crespi & Hardt decreased their price objective on shares of Pinterest from $50.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Pinterest from $46.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Pinterest from an “overweight” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Pinterest from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.48.

Insider Activity

In other Pinterest news, CTO Matthew Madrigal sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.58, for a total value of $771,600.00. Following the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 428,823 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,543,991.34. This represents a 4.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Donnelly Julia Brau sold 29,606 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.25, for a total transaction of $1,014,005.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 362,890 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,428,982.50. The trade was a 7.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,502,611 shares of company stock valued at $51,602,943. 7.11% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pinterest

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PINS. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Pinterest in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Pinterest in the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. NBC Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pinterest by 99,900.0% in the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 999 shares in the last quarter. American National Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Pinterest in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, West Branch Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pinterest in the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.81% of the company’s stock.

Pinterest Price Performance

Pinterest stock opened at $39.06 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.90. Pinterest has a 1-year low of $23.68 and a 1-year high of $40.90. The stock has a market cap of $26.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.78.

Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.02). Pinterest had a net margin of 50.41% and a return on equity of 8.13%. The firm had revenue of $854.99 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $848.49 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.17 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Pinterest will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Pinterest

Pinterest, Inc operates as a visual search and discovery platform in the United States and internationally. Its platform allows people to find ideas, such as recipes, home and style inspiration, and others; and to search, save, and shop the ideas. The company was formerly known as Cold Brew Labs Inc and changed its name to Pinterest, Inc in April 2012.