Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on GameStop (NYSE:GME)

GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock traders bought 337,172 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 55% compared to the average volume of 216,948 call options.

GameStop Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of GME stock opened at $27.53 on Friday. GameStop has a 12-month low of $16.88 and a 12-month high of $64.83. The company has a market cap of $12.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 152.95 and a beta of -0.76. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.61.

GameStop (NYSE:GME) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, March 25th. The company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.48 billion. GameStop had a return on equity of 2.11% and a net margin of 1.45%. GameStop’s quarterly revenue was down 28.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that GameStop will post 0.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other GameStop news, Director Alain Attal acquired 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 10th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.75 per share, for a total transaction of $257,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 572,464 shares in the company, valued at $14,740,948. This trade represents a 1.78 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lawrence Cheng bought 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 3rd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $21.54 per share, with a total value of $107,700.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 83,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,787,820. This trade represents a 6.41 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have bought a total of 515,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,140,200 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GameStop

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in GameStop by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,144,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,226,775,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,032 shares in the last quarter. Slate Path Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of GameStop in the 4th quarter worth about $60,361,000. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of GameStop by 606.7% in the 4th quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 1,650,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,735,000 after buying an additional 1,417,156 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in GameStop by 26.2% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,171,303 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,389,000 after acquiring an additional 659,345 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in GameStop by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,659,234 shares of the company’s stock valued at $208,769,000 after acquiring an additional 380,554 shares in the last quarter. 29.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GME has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wedbush set a $11.50 price target on GameStop in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of GameStop from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th.

GameStop Company Profile

GameStop Corp., a specialty retailer, provides games and entertainment products through its stores and ecommerce platforms in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. The company sells new and pre-owned gaming platforms; accessories, such as controllers, gaming headsets, and virtual reality products; new and pre-owned gaming software; and in-game digital currency, digital downloadable content, and full-game downloads.