SEA (NYSE:SE) Stock Sees Unusually High Call Option Buying

Sea Limited Sponsored ADR (NYSE:SE) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 11,763 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 33% compared to the typical volume of 8,816 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Arete Research set a $152.00 price objective on SEA and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 7th. Barclays upped their target price on SEA from $122.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised SEA from a “sector perform” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of SEA in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $153.00 price target on shares of SEA in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $149.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Yanjun Wang sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.43, for a total transaction of $95,430.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 77,780 shares in the company, valued at $7,422,545.40. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Feng Zhao sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.02, for a total transaction of $3,800,800.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 93,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,891,971.60. This trade represents a 29.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 2,128,586 shares of company stock worth $258,287,740 in the last ninety days. 0.22% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SEA

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capstone Capital Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of SEA in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,612,000. Whetstone Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of SEA during the second quarter valued at approximately $8,191,000. Corient Private Wealth LP raised its holdings in shares of SEA by 61.4% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 26,534 shares of the Internet company based in Singapore’s stock valued at $2,543,000 after acquiring an additional 10,099 shares in the last quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA raised its holdings in shares of SEA by 6.6% during the third quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 283,921 shares of the Internet company based in Singapore’s stock valued at $27,644,000 after acquiring an additional 17,657 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Euro Pacific Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in SEA in the third quarter worth $2,159,000. Institutional investors own 59.53% of the company’s stock.

SEA Trading Down 8.0%

Shares of SE traded down $7.07 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $81.40. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,324,217 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,801,810. The company has a current ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. SEA has a 52 week low of $77.05 and a 52 week high of $171.09. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $107.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $98.67. The stock has a market cap of $49.74 billion, a PE ratio of 31.41, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.54.

SEA (NYSE:SE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 11th. The Internet company based in Singapore reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by ($0.16). SEA had a return on equity of 13.54% and a net margin of 5.98%. The business had revenue of $7.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.65 EPS. SEA’s revenue for the quarter was up 48.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that SEA will post 2.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SEA Company Profile

Sea Limited is a Singapore-based global technology company founded in 2009. Formerly known as Garena, the company operates digital businesses serving consumers and merchants primarily in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and selected markets in Latin America and other regions.

Through Shopee, Sea’s e-commerce platform, the company provides online marketplaces that connect buyers and sellers and offer supporting services such as payments, logistics and merchant tools. Garena, its digital entertainment business, develops and publishes online games and distributes third-party titles, while also operating digital entertainment platforms and services.

SeaMoney is the company’s digital financial services division.