Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Pinterest (NYSE:PINS)

Pinterest, Inc. (NYSE:PINS) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Traders acquired 53,055 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 32% compared to the typical volume of 40,157 put options.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Gokul Rajaram sold 1,150 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.73, for a total value of $34,189.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 32,536 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $967,295.28. This represents a 3.41 % 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, insider Wanjiku Juanita Walcott sold 11,862 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.82, for a total transaction of $365,586.84. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 246,921 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,610,105.22. The trade was a 4.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 19,157 shares of company stock worth $589,131. Corporate insiders own 7.11% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pinterest

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Maverick Capital Ltd. grew its position in shares of Pinterest by 47.6% during the 3rd quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 57,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,851,000 after buying an additional 18,430 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its position in shares of Pinterest by 8.4% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,540,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,855,000 after buying an additional 119,367 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Pinterest by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 844,187 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,326,000 after purchasing an additional 32,539 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Pinterest by 2.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,252,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $137,669,000 after buying an additional 87,041 shares during the period. Finally, Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS boosted its holdings in shares of Pinterest by 20.3% in the third quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 404,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,087,000 after buying an additional 68,096 shares during the period. 88.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PINS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Pinterest from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Roth Mkm decreased their price target on shares of Pinterest from $39.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Pinterest from $39.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded shares of Pinterest from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target on shares of Pinterest in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.70.

Pinterest Stock Up 0.9 %

Pinterest stock opened at $33.60 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.55. Pinterest has a 12-month low of $27.00 and a 12-month high of $45.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.06.

Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.63 by ($0.30). Pinterest had a return on equity of 8.37% and a net margin of 6.21%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Pinterest will post 0.42 EPS for the current 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.