Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on Interactive Brokers Group (NASDAQ:IBKR)

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBKR) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 14,808 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 124% compared to the typical daily volume of 6,613 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Lawrence Harris sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.61, for a total transaction of $2,065,250.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 148,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,266,098.02. The trade was a 14.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BOCHK Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in Interactive Brokers Group during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Interactive Brokers Group by 1,217.2% in the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. now owns 382 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 353 shares during the last quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc acquired a new position in Interactive Brokers Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Interactive Brokers Group by 62.2% in the third quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 524 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares during the period. Finally, Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Interactive Brokers Group by 584.6% during the first quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 534 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the last quarter. 23.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on IBKR. Seaport Research Partners raised Interactive Brokers Group to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 12th. CICC Research increased their price target on Interactive Brokers Group from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. UBS Group set a $97.00 price objective on Interactive Brokers Group in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. Raymond James Financial started coverage on Interactive Brokers Group in a report on Wednesday, August 26th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Interactive Brokers Group from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Interactive Brokers Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $102.87.

Interactive Brokers Group Trading Down 5.7%

NASDAQ IBKR traded down $4.46 on Thursday, hitting $73.42. 3,732,824 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,716,477. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $87.30 and a 200 day moving average of $82.95. Interactive Brokers Group has a twelve month low of $58.95 and a twelve month high of $98.75. The company has a market capitalization of $124.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.37.

Interactive Brokers Group (NASDAQ:IBKR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67. The company had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.86 billion. Interactive Brokers Group had a return on equity of 5.38% and a net margin of 10.03%. Interactive Brokers Group’s quarterly revenue was up 15.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.57 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Interactive Brokers Group will post 2.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Interactive Brokers Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 1st. This is a positive change from Interactive Brokers Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.0875. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Interactive Brokers Group’s payout ratio is presently 13.46%.

About Interactive Brokers Group

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc is a global electronic brokerage company that provides trading, investment and portfolio management services to individual investors, institutional clients, financial advisers, hedge funds, proprietary trading firms and introducing brokers. Through its subsidiaries, the company offers access to a broad range of markets and financial instruments, including stocks, options, futures, foreign exchange, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and certain digital assets.

Interactive Brokers provides its services through platforms such as Trader Workstation, IBKR Mobile and the Client Portal, as well as application programming interfaces for automated and institutional trading.