Stock Traders Buy High Volume of PetMed Express Call Options (NASDAQ:PETS)

PetMed Express, Inc. (NASDAQ:PETS) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 2,357 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 854% compared to the average volume of 247 call options.

Institutional Trading of PetMed Express

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Truffle Hound Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of PetMed Express in the second quarter worth about $399,000. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in PetMed Express by 164.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 107,816 shares of the company’s stock valued at $271,000 after buying an additional 67,016 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new stake in PetMed Express in the 3rd quarter valued at about $153,000. Caption Management LLC bought a new position in PetMed Express in the 1st quarter worth about $242,000. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC bought a new position in PetMed Express in the 3rd quarter worth about $75,000. 73.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PETS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered PetMed Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 18th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of PetMed Express in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of PetMed Express from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, PetMed Express presently has a consensus rating of “Sell” and a consensus price target of $3.20.

PetMed Express Price Performance

Shares of PETS traded up $1.35 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $3.12. 60,464,355 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 307,213. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $2.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $2.90. PetMed Express has a 12 month low of $1.57 and a 12 month high of $6.08. The stock has a market cap of $65.60 million, a P/E ratio of -10.42 and a beta of 0.75.

PetMed Express (NASDAQ:PETS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 14th. The company reported ($0.56) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.04 by ($0.60). The business had revenue of $46.47 million for the quarter. PetMed Express had a negative net margin of 2.76% and a negative return on equity of 6.76%. Research analysts predict that PetMed Express will post 0.19 earnings per share for the current year.

PetMed Express Company Profile

PetMed Express, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a pet pharmacy in the United States. The company markets prescription and non-prescription pet medications, health products, and other supplies for dogs, cats, and horses. It offers non-prescription medications and supplies, such as flea and tick control products, bone and joint care products, vitamins, treats, nutritional supplements, hygiene products, and household pet supplies; and prescription medications, including heartworm preventatives, flea and tick preventatives, arthritis, dermatitis, thyroid, diabetes, pain medications, heart/blood pressure, and other specialty medications, as well as generic substitutes.