Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Reddit (NYSE:RDDT)

Reddit Inc. (NYSE:RDDT) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 61,156 call options on the company. This is an increase of 45% compared to the typical daily volume of 42,052 call options.

Insider Transactions at Reddit

In related news, CEO Steve Ladd Huffman sold 18,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.26, for a total transaction of $3,208,680.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 373,814 shares in the company, valued at approximately $66,636,083.64. The trade was a 4.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Christopher Brian Slowe sold 15,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.67, for a total transaction of $2,335,385.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 38,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,787,686.71. This trade represents a 28.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 223,000 shares of company stock valued at $36,913,785 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 28.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Reddit

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RDDT. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Reddit by 67.7% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 15,659 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,600,000 after buying an additional 6,321 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd boosted its holdings in Reddit by 63.2% in the 4th quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 32,003 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,357,000 after acquiring an additional 12,398 shares during the period. Calamos Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Reddit in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,299,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in Reddit by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 37,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,505,000 after acquiring an additional 6,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berkshire Capital Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Reddit by 326,400.0% during the fourth quarter. Berkshire Capital Holdings Inc. now owns 32,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,505,000 after purchasing an additional 32,640 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on RDDT shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Reddit in a research report on Friday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Reddit in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $215.00 price objective (up from $205.00) on shares of Reddit in a research report on Friday, May 1st. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Reddit in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Reddit from $149.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $230.75.

Reddit Stock Performance

RDDT stock traded up $23.84 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $197.42. The stock had a trading volume of 8,749,190 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,227,284. The stock has a market cap of $38.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.41 and a beta of 1.91. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $162.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $172.21. Reddit has a 1-year low of $119.27 and a 1-year high of $282.95.

Reddit (NYSE:RDDT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.39. Reddit had a return on equity of 25.48% and a net margin of 28.60%.The business had revenue of $663.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $607.74 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 69.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Reddit will post 4.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Reddit

Reddit is an online social news aggregation, discussion and content-sharing platform organized around user-created communities called “subreddits,” each focused on a particular topic or interest. Registered users submit links, text posts, images and video, and community members vote and comment to surface popular content. The site is accessed via its web platform and mobile apps for iOS and Android, and it supports live events such as Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions and community-driven discussions.

Founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, Reddit is headquartered in San Francisco and serves a global audience with particularly large user bases in the United States and other English-speaking markets.