JD.com Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:JD)

JD.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:JD) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors bought 217,649 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 268% compared to the average volume of 59,163 call options.

Institutional Trading of JD.com

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. boosted its holdings in JD.com by 132.1% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 99,858 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,866,000 after buying an additional 56,829 shares in the last quarter. Larry Mathis Financial Planning LLC purchased a new stake in JD.com during the fourth quarter worth about $205,000. PeakShares LLC purchased a new stake in JD.com during the fourth quarter worth about $100,000. Flax Pond Capital LLC purchased a new stake in JD.com during the fourth quarter worth about $2,409,000. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in JD.com by 158.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 81,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,328,000 after buying an additional 49,735 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 15.98% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JD has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Nomura lifted their price target on shares of JD.com from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of JD.com from $41.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of JD.com from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of JD.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of JD.com in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $36.36.

JD.com Stock Up 2.1%

JD stock opened at $29.05 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $41.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.51, a P/E/G ratio of 8.21 and a beta of 0.36. JD.com has a 52 week low of $24.51 and a 52 week high of $39.27. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $27.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, February 14th. The information services provider reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $50.35 billion for the quarter. JD.com had a net margin of 1.48% and a return on equity of 7.56%. On average, research analysts expect that JD.com will post 3.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

JD.com Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This is an increase from JD.com’s previous annual dividend of $0.76. This represents a yield of 344.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. JD.com’s payout ratio is presently 55.68%.

JD.com Company Profile

JD.com is a major Chinese e-commerce company that operates a comprehensive online retail platform selling a wide range of consumer goods, including electronics, appliances, apparel, groceries and everyday household items. The company combines direct retailing—purchasing inventory and selling products itself—with a marketplace for third-party merchants, offering consumers both self-operated and third-party choices. In addition to its core retail business, JD.com has expanded into adjacent services such as digital marketplaces for cross-border commerce, online pharmacy and healthcare services, and enterprise-facing cloud and technology solutions.

A distinctive feature of JD.com’s business model is its integrated logistics and fulfillment network.