Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on iQIYI (NASDAQ:IQ)

iQIYI, Inc. (NASDAQ:IQ) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors bought 19,088 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 175% compared to the typical volume of 6,935 call options.

iQIYI Stock Performance

NASDAQ IQ opened at $4.99 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.68 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a 50 day moving average of $4.08 and a 200-day moving average of $4.29. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. iQIYI has a 1-year low of $3.06 and a 1-year high of $6.47.

iQIYI (NASDAQ:IQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.08 billion. iQIYI had a net margin of 4.76% and a return on equity of 13.56%. On average, equities analysts forecast that iQIYI will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of iQIYI

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Krane Funds Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of iQIYI by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 19,194,425 shares of the company’s stock valued at $93,669,000 after purchasing an additional 467,032 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of iQIYI by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,756,701 shares of the company’s stock valued at $86,653,000 after purchasing an additional 170,227 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of iQIYI by 1,117.7% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 17,356,739 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,271,000 after purchasing an additional 15,931,422 shares in the last quarter. SCEP Management Ltd increased its holdings in shares of iQIYI by 22.3% in the third quarter. SCEP Management Ltd now owns 15,000,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,100,000 after purchasing an additional 2,731,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in shares of iQIYI by 14.6% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 12,153,225 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,308,000 after purchasing an additional 1,549,805 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, OTR Global restated a “mixed” rating on shares of iQIYI in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $6.54.

About iQIYI

iQIYI, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides online entertainment video services in the People's Republic of China. It offers various products and services, including online video, online games, online literature, animations, and other products. The company operates a platform that provides a collection of internet video content, such as professionally produced content licensed from professional content providers and self-produced content.