Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO)

Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 15,408 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 560% compared to the average daily volume of 2,336 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Criteo from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Criteo from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Criteo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Criteo from $40.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded shares of Criteo from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.11.

Criteo Stock Performance

Shares of Criteo stock traded up $1.05 on Tuesday, reaching $43.00. The company had a trading volume of 638,426 shares, compared to its average volume of 349,090. The firm has a market cap of $2.44 billion, a PE ratio of 43.25 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $45.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.35. Criteo has a 52-week low of $22.10 and a 52-week high of $49.93.

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The information services provider reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.31. Criteo had a return on equity of 15.64% and a net margin of 4.54%. The company had revenue of $471.31 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $263.64 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Criteo will post 2.8 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Sarah Js Glickman sold 5,496 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.49, for a total transaction of $250,013.04. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 320,201 shares in the company, valued at $14,565,943.49. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Criteo

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CRTO. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Criteo during the second quarter worth about $1,327,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Criteo during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,059,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in Criteo by 312.5% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,300 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $124,000 after buying an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Criteo by 523.1% in the second quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC now owns 59,199 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,233,000 after acquiring an additional 49,699 shares in the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management N.V. grew its stake in shares of Criteo by 1.9% in the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 407,822 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,353,000 after acquiring an additional 7,469 shares in the last quarter. 94.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Criteo

Criteo SA, a technology company, provides marketing and monetization services on the open Internet in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company's Criteo Shopper Graph, which derives clients' proprietary commerce data, such as transaction activity on their digital properties.