Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Roblox (NYSE:RBLX)

Roblox Co. (NYSE:RBLX) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 119,441 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 171% compared to the typical daily volume of 44,053 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Michael Guthrie sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.50, for a total value of $1,245,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 352,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,643,026. This represents a 7.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Anthony P. Lee sold 200,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total value of $10,066,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,707,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $236,932,451.07. This represents a 4.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,038,607 shares of company stock worth $49,713,872. Corporate insiders own 22.15% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Roblox

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its position in shares of Roblox by 1.9% in the second quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 29,142,565 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,084,395,000 after purchasing an additional 535,414 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Roblox by 24.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 20,942,691 shares of the company’s stock worth $926,924,000 after buying an additional 4,115,286 shares during the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Roblox by 12.9% during the second quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 13,338,829 shares of the company’s stock worth $496,338,000 after buying an additional 1,519,591 shares in the last quarter. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Roblox by 26.9% in the second quarter. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC now owns 11,745,203 shares of the company’s stock valued at $437,039,000 after acquiring an additional 2,488,044 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Roblox by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,855,890 shares of the company’s stock worth $480,482,000 after acquiring an additional 240,565 shares in the last quarter. 91.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Roblox in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Roblox from $51.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $62.00 price objective (up from $56.00) on shares of Roblox in a report on Friday, November 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of Roblox from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Roblox from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.30.

Roblox Stock Up 6.4 %

Shares of Roblox stock traded up $3.47 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $58.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 11,254,220 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,607,004. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.24 billion, a P/E ratio of -35.73 and a beta of 1.50. Roblox has a 1-year low of $29.55 and a 1-year high of $59.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.64. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $46.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.96.

Roblox (NYSE:RBLX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported ($0.37) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.39) by $0.02. Roblox had a negative net margin of 30.90% and a negative return on equity of 986.36%. The company had revenue of $919.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.45) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Roblox will post -1.56 earnings per share for the current year.

About Roblox

Roblox Corporation develops and operates an online entertainment platform in the United States and internationally. It offers Roblox Studio, a free toolset that allows developers and creators to build, publish, and operate 3D experiences, and other content; Roblox Client, an application that allows users to explore 3D experience; and Roblox Cloud, which provides services and infrastructure that power the platform.