Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR)

MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders bought 832,307 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 79% compared to the average volume of 465,265 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MSTR shares. Maxim Group increased their price target on shares of MicroStrategy from $193.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. BTIG Research lifted their price target on MicroStrategy from $290.00 to $570.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of MicroStrategy from $392.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of MicroStrategy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on MicroStrategy from $275.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $479.25.

MicroStrategy Stock Performance

Shares of MicroStrategy stock opened at $377.31 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $90.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -179.07 and a beta of 3.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.65. MicroStrategy has a 1 year low of $43.87 and a 1 year high of $543.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $366.62 and its 200 day moving average is $240.20.

MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software maker reported ($1.56) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by ($1.44). The business had revenue of $116.07 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $121.45 million. MicroStrategy had a negative return on equity of 17.31% and a negative net margin of 87.05%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($8.98) EPS.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Stephen X. Graham sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $451.36, for a total transaction of $9,027,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,970 shares in the company, valued at $3,145,979.20. The trade was a 74.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Wei-Ming Shao sold 18,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.01, for a total value of $6,624,180.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 6,460 shares in the company, valued at $2,377,344.60. This represents a 73.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 102,000 shares of company stock valued at $32,259,177. 9.16% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MicroStrategy

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in MicroStrategy by 990.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,766,283 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $465,573,000 after purchasing an additional 2,512,645 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MicroStrategy by 587.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 664,261 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $111,994,000 after purchasing an additional 567,628 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in MicroStrategy by 971.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 639,707 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $107,855,000 after buying an additional 579,994 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its position in MicroStrategy by 904.7% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 468,200 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $78,939,000 after purchasing an additional 421,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MicroStrategy by 1,077.0% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 343,164 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $57,857,000 after buying an additional 314,007 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.84% of the company’s stock.

About MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy Incorporated provides artificial intelligence-powered enterprise analytics software and services in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. It offers MicroStrategy ONE, which provides non-technical users with the ability to directly access novel and actionable insights for decision-making; and MicroStrategy Cloud for Government service, which offers always-on threat monitoring that meets the rigorous technical and regulatory needs of governments and financial institutions.