Tripadvisor Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:TRIP)

Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 47,369 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 851% compared to the average daily volume of 4,982 call options.

Institutional Trading of Tripadvisor

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in TRIP. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Tripadvisor by 38.1% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,115,807 shares of the travel company’s stock worth $84,820,000 after purchasing an additional 1,410,932 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Tripadvisor in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,807,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Tripadvisor by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,084,674 shares of the travel company’s stock valued at $200,364,000 after acquiring an additional 1,263,706 shares during the last quarter. Kettle Hill Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Tripadvisor in the 3rd quarter valued at $19,626,000. Finally, Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Tripadvisor in the 3rd quarter worth $16,431,000. Institutional investors own 98.99% of the company’s stock.

Tripadvisor Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:TRIP traded down $7.14 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $18.34. 16,067,273 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,508,699. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a current ratio of 2.27. The company has a market capitalization of $2.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 301.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.56. Tripadvisor has a 1-year low of $14.15 and a 1-year high of $28.76.

Tripadvisor (NASDAQ:TRIP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The travel company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $390.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $372.93 million. Tripadvisor had a net margin of 0.56% and a return on equity of 11.69%. Sell-side analysts expect that Tripadvisor will post 0.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on TRIP shares. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Tripadvisor in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Tripadvisor from $18.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Tripadvisor from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Tripadvisor from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Tripadvisor from $23.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $24.12.

Tripadvisor Company Profile

TripAdvisor, Inc operates as an online travel company, primarily engages in the provision of travel guidance products and services worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Brand Tripadvisor, Viator, and TheFork. The Brand Tripadvisor segment offers travel guidance platforms for travelers to discover, generate, and share authentic user-generated content in the form of ratings and reviews for destinations, points-of-interest, experiences, accommodations, restaurants, and cruises.