Investors Buy Large Volume of iRobot Call Options (NASDAQ:IRBT)

iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ:IRBT) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors bought 13,098 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 43% compared to the typical daily volume of 9,174 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

IRBT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of iRobot in a research report on Monday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of iRobot in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of iRobot from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, iRobot has an average rating of “Reduce”.

iRobot Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:IRBT opened at $3.03 on Friday. iRobot has a one year low of $1.40 and a one year high of $13.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $96.44 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.45 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $3.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $3.46.

iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The industrial products company reported ($0.23) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.65) by $0.42. The firm had revenue of $145.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $136.00 million. iRobot had a negative return on equity of 2,446.70% and a negative net margin of 38.16%. As a group, research analysts forecast that iRobot will post -5.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in iRobot in the second quarter valued at $32,000. Hilltop Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of iRobot in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iRobot in the second quarter valued at about $36,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in iRobot during the second quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in iRobot by 47.9% during the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 10,846 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 3,513 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.42% of the company’s stock.

About iRobot

iRobot Corporation designs, builds, and sells robots and home innovation products in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, and internationally. The company offers floor care products, including Roomba floor vacuuming robots; Roomba accessories and consumables, such as the Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal, replacement dirt disposal bags for the Clean Base, filters, brushes, and batteries; Braava family of automatic floor mopping robots; and Braava accessories and consumables, which include cleaning solution, washable and disposable mopping pads, replacement tanks, and batteries, as well as subscription services.