MicroStrategy Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:MSTR)

MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders purchased 147,434 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 104% compared to the average daily volume of 72,200 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MicroStrategy news, CEO Phong Le sold 50,000 shares of MicroStrategy stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.28, for a total transaction of $6,914,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,670 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,752,007.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other MicroStrategy news, EVP Wei-Ming Shao sold 3,000 shares of MicroStrategy stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.20, for a total value of $423,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,460 shares in the company, valued at $912,152. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Phong Le sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.28, for a total value of $6,914,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,670 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,752,007.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 101,838 shares of company stock worth $13,950,265 over the last ninety days. 13.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MicroStrategy

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in MicroStrategy by 13.6% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 50 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 6 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of MicroStrategy by 36.4% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 30 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 8 shares during the period. Cigna Investments Inc. New lifted its holdings in shares of MicroStrategy by 5.1% in the second quarter. Cigna Investments Inc. New now owns 164 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $226,000 after purchasing an additional 8 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of MicroStrategy by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 400 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $551,000 after acquiring an additional 11 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of MicroStrategy by 233.3% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 20 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.03% of the company’s stock.

MicroStrategy Price Performance

Shares of MSTR traded up $10.33 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $141.10. 9,182,862 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,399,605. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $141.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $143.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.47. MicroStrategy has a one year low of $30.71 and a one year high of $200.00. The company has a market capitalization of $25.03 billion, a PE ratio of -20.84 and a beta of 3.10.

MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The software maker reported ($0.57) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by ($0.48). MicroStrategy had a negative net margin of 43.69% and a negative return on equity of 14.72%. The firm had revenue of $111.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $121.99 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.15 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on MSTR shares. Benchmark lifted their price objective on shares of MicroStrategy from $187.50 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of MicroStrategy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on shares of MicroStrategy in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $194.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays initiated coverage on MicroStrategy in a research report on Friday, September 6th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $146.00 target price for the company. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on MicroStrategy from $145.00 to $188.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MicroStrategy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $198.45.

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.