TripAdvisor Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:TRIP)

TripAdvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders acquired 20,102 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 386% compared to the typical volume of 4,134 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other TripAdvisor news, CEO Almir Ambeskovic sold 8,000 shares of TripAdvisor stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.30, for a total value of $98,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 34,396 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $423,070.80. The trade was a 18.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TripAdvisor

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TRIP. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in TripAdvisor by 29.5% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 81,998 shares of the travel company’s stock worth $1,162,000 after acquiring an additional 18,699 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in TripAdvisor by 1,183.2% during the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 6,416 shares of the travel company’s stock worth $85,000 after acquiring an additional 5,916 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in TripAdvisor by 14.2% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 13,475 shares of the travel company’s stock worth $191,000 after acquiring an additional 1,676 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its position in TripAdvisor by 8.0% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 297,532 shares of the travel company’s stock worth $4,216,000 after acquiring an additional 22,136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning acquired a new position in TripAdvisor during the second quarter worth about $349,000. 98.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of TripAdvisor from $25.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $15.00 target price on shares of TripAdvisor in a research report on Friday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of TripAdvisor from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of TripAdvisor from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 14th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of TripAdvisor from $16.00 to $13.70 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TripAdvisor has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.76.

TripAdvisor Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TRIP traded up $0.50 during trading on Friday, hitting $12.41. The company had a trading volume of 7,660,956 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,634,884. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.01. TripAdvisor has a fifty-two week low of $9.01 and a fifty-two week high of $20.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 124.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36.

TripAdvisor (NASDAQ:TRIP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The travel company reported ($0.11) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $382.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $384.69 million. TripAdvisor had a return on equity of 5.73% and a net margin of 0.99%.The business’s revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.14 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that TripAdvisor will post 0.69 earnings per share for the current year.

TripAdvisor Company Profile

TripAdvisor (NASDAQ:TRIP) is a leading online travel company that operates a digital platform for travel information, reviews and booking services. The company’s flagship website and mobile apps allow users to access and contribute travel-related content—ranging from hotel and restaurant reviews to ratings for tours, attractions and vacation rentals—helping consumers plan and book trips around the world.

The core of TripAdvisor’s offering is its community-driven review system, which aggregates user-generated feedback alongside editorial content and professional photography.